BF 

1451 
F3 




Class. 
Book. 



THEORY 

OF 

APPARITIONS. 



ESSAY 

TOWARDS 

A THEORY 

OF 

APPARITIONS. 



JOHN FERRIAR, M. D. 



A thousand fantasies 

Begin to throng into my memory, 

Of calling shapes, and beck'ning shadows dire, 

And airy tongues, that syllable men's names 

On sands, and shores, and desert wildernesses. 

These thoughts may startle well, but not astound. 

Comus, !. 205. 



LONDON: 

PRINTED FOR CADELL AND DAVIES 
BY 
J. AND J. HADDOCK, 

WARRINGTON. 

1813. 



CONTENTS. 



Page. 

Chapter I. Reality of spectral i?npressions — 
General laiv of the system, to which they may 
be referred —Division of the subject — Spectral 
illusions exemplified ------ _ _ j$ 

Chapter II. A lawyer's argument for the exist- 
ence of witchcraft — Proofs of spectral inpres- 
sions, from recollected perceptions — New Eng- 
land witches — Cardan —Donne — Jonson — The 
maid of France — and other visionaries - - 28 

Chapter III. Beaumont's Visions — Those of 
Tasso — Kotter — Drabicius — Arise Evans — 
Bovet 69 

Chapter IV. Medical distinctions of spectral 
impressions. Sepulchral remedies : Preparations 
of the human skull — Mumia — Apparition of 
Ficinus to Michael Mercato — Warning voice 
to Quarrwus — Visions of Dr. Pordage. Latent 
lunacy ; exemplified in the character of Hamlet 95 

Chapter V. Accessory causes of delusion, re- 
garding spectral impressions — Apparition of 
Desfontaines — Ghosts at Portnedown Bridge — 
Lucian's story of a Split Ghost — Instance of a 
Ghost in two places at once. 



PREFACE. 



W HEN a late ingenious Physician dis- 
covered the elastic fluid, which he termed 
his * Gas of Paradise,' and which he 
hoped to render a cheap substitute for 
inebriating liquors, he claimed die ho- 
nors due to the inventor of a new plea- 
sure. 

How far mankind would have bene- 
fited, by the introduction of a fresh 
mode of intoxication, I leave to the 
reflection of those sages, whose duty it 
would have become to appreciate it* value, 

A 



vi PREFACE. 

as an additional source of revenue to 
the state. But when I consider the de- 
light with which stories of apparitions 
are received by persons of all ages, and 
of the most various kinds of knowledge 
and ability, I cannot help feeling some 
degree of complacency, in offering to 
the makers and readers of such stories, 
a view of the subject, which may ex- 
tend their enjoyment far beyond its for- 
mer limits. It has given me pain to see 
the most fearful and ghastly commence- 
ments of a tale of horror reduced to 
mere common events, at the winding up 
of the book. I have looked, also, with 
much compassion, on the pitiful instru- 
ments of sliding panne Is, trap-doors, back- 
stairs, wax-work figures, smugglers, rob- 
bers, coiners, and other vulgar machinery, 
which authors of tender consciences have 



PREFACE. Vll 

employed, to avoid the imputation of 
belief in supernatural occurrences. So 
hackneyed, so exhausted had all arti- 
ficial methods of terror become, that 
one original genius was compelled to 
convert a mail-coach, with its lighted 
lamps, into an apparition. 

Now I freely offer, to the manufac- 
turers of ghosts, the privilege of raising 
them, in as great numbers, and in as 
horrible a guise as they may think fit, 
without offending against true philoso- 
phy, and even without violating proba- 
bility. The highest flights of imagina- 
tion may now be indulged, on this 
subject, although no loop-hole should 
be left for mortifying explanations, and 
for those modifications of terror, which 
completely baulk the reader's curiosity, 
and disgust him with a second reading. 
A 2 



Till PREFACE. 

Another great convenience will be found 
in my system; apparitions may be 
evoked, in open day, — at noon, if the 
case should be urgent, in the midst of a 
field, on the surface of water, or in the 
glare of a patent-lamp, quite as easily, 
as in the ' darkness of chaos or old night/ 
Nav, a person rightly prepared may see 
ghosts, while seated comfortably by his 
library-lire, in as much perfection, as 
amidst broken tombs, nodding ruins, and 
awe-inspiring ivy. To those unfortunate 
persons, who feel a real dread of appa- 
ritions, I hope to offer considerations 
which will quiet their fears, and will 
even convert the horrors of solitude into 
a source of rational amusement. But I 
must forbear to display all the utility of 
this treatise, lest my reader should ima- 
gine that I am copying Echard's mock- 
panegyric on his own dialogues. 



PREFACE. IX 

Take courage, then, good reader, and 
knock at the portal of my enchanted 
castle, which will be opened to you, 
not by a grinning demon, but by a very 
civil person, in a black velvet cap, with 
whom you may pass an hour not dis- 
agreeably. 

Observe, however, that the following 
treatise is applicable, in its principles, to 
profane history, and to the delusions of 
individuals only. If any thing con- 
tained in the ensuing pages could be 
construed into the most indirect refe- 
rence to theological discussions^ the 
manuscript would have been committed* 
without mercy, to the flames. 

What methods may have been em- 
ployed by Providence, on extraordinary 
A $ 



X PREFACE. 

occasions, to communicate with men, 
I do not presume to investigate ; nor 
could I hope to display them in lan- 
guage equal to the numbers of our 
sweetest poet, with which I shall con- 
clude these remarks : 



And is there care in heaven ? and is there love 
In heavenly spirits to these creatures base, 
That may compassion of their evils move ? 
There is : else much more wretched were the case 
Of men than beasts. But O th' exceeding grace 
Of highest God ! that loves his creatures so, 
And all his works with mercies doth embrace, 
That blessed angels he sends to and fro, 
To serve to wicked man, to serve his wicked foe. 

How oft do they their silver bowers leave, 

To come to succour us, that succour want ? 

How oft do they with golden pinions cleave 

The flitting skies, like flying pursuivant, 

Against foul fiends to aid us militant ? 

They for us fight, they watch and duly ward, 

And their bright squadrons round about us plant, 

And all for love, and nothing for reward : 

O why should heavenly God to men have such regard? 

Faerie 2ueene, Cant. viii. 



THEORY 



OF 

APPARITIONS. 



A 4 



OF THE 

THEORY OF APPARITIONS. 

CHAPTER I. 

Reality of spectral impressions — General 
lam of the system, to which they may be 
referred — Division of the subject— Spec- 
tral illusions exemplified. 

JL Shall begin this discussion, by admit- 
ing, as an undeniable fact, that the forms 
of dead, or absent persons have been 
seen, and their voices have been heard, 
by witnesses whose testimony is entitled 
to belief. 



14 THEORY OF APPARITIONS. 

It would be an endless task to ransack 
the pages of antiquity, for instances of 
this kind. The apparition of the Genius 
to Brutus, and of the Fury to Dion, 
cannot be doubted. We may be allowed, 
however, to enquire, whether the im- 
proved state of physiology affords any 
glimpse of light on this subject, and 
whether such extraordinary and terrific 
impressions cannot be explained, from 
the known laws of the animal ceconomy, 
independent of supernatural causes, in 
the examples furnished by profane his- 
tory. 

It is well known, that in certain dis- 
eases of the brain, such as delirium and 
insanity, spectral delusions take place, 
even during the space of many days. 
But it has not been generally observed, 
that a partial affection of the brain may 
exist, which renders the patient liable 
to such imaginary impressions, either of 
sight or sound, without disordering his 



THEORY OF APPARITIONS. 15 

judgment or memory. From this pecu- 
liar condition of the sensOrium, I con- 
ceive that the best supported stories of 
apparitions may be completely account- 
ed for. 

To render this inquiry more perspicu- 
ous, I shall consider, 

I. The general law of the system, 
to which the origin of the spectral im- 
pressions may be referred : 

II. The proof of the existence of 
morbid impressions of this nature, with- 
out any sensible external agency : 

III. The application of these prin- 
ciples to the best-authenticated examples 
of apparitions. 

M- 

It is a well-known law of the human 
ceconomy, that the impressions produced 



16 THEORY OF APPARITIONS. 

on some of the external senses, especially 
on the eye, are more durable than the 
application of the impressing cause. 
The effect of looking at the sun, in 
producing the impression of a luminous 
globe, for some time after the eye has 
been withdrawn from the object, is fa- 
miliar to every one. 

This subject has been so thoroughly 
investigated by the late Dr. Darwin, that 
I need only to refer the reader to his 
treatise on ocular spectra.* In young 
persons, the effects resulting from this 
permanence of impression are extremely 
curious. I remember, that about the 
age of fourteen, it was a source of great 
amusement to myself. If I had beer* 
viewing any interesting object in the 
course of the day, such as a romantic 
ruin, a fine seat, or a review of a body 

* The experiments in this Essay appear to have 
been suggested, by those of Mariotte, Le Cat, and 
Bernouilli. 



THEORY OF APPARITIONS. 17 

of troops, as soon as evening came on, 
if I had occasion to go into a dark room, 
the whole scene was brought before my 
eyes, with a brilliancy equal to what it 
had possessed in day-light, and remained 
visible for several minutes. I have no 
doubt, that dismal and frightful images 
have been presented, in the same man- 
ner, to young persons, after scenes of 
domestic affliction, or public horror. 

From this renewal of external impres- 
sions, also, many of the phenomena 
of dreams admit an easy explanation. 
When an object is presented to the mind, 
during sleep, while the operations of 
judgment are suspended, the imagina- 
tion is busily employed in forming a 
story, to account for the appearance, 
whether agreeable or distressing. Then 
the author enjoys the delight of perusing 
works of infinite wit and elegance, 
which never had any real existence, 
and of which, to his utter mortification, 
he cannot recollect a single line, next 



18 THEORY OF APPARITIONS. 

morning ; and then the Bibliomane pur- 
chases illuminated manuscripts, and early 
editions on vellum, for sums so trifling, 
that he cannot conceal his joy from the 
imaginary vender. 

Dr. R. Darwin seems to believe, that 
it is from habit only, and want of atten- 
tion, that we do not see the remains of 
former impressions, or the musca voli- 
tantes, on all objects.* Probably, this 
is an instance, in which the error of 
external sensation is corrected by experi- 
ence, like the deceptions of perspective, 
which are undoubtedly strong in our 
childhood, and are only detected by 
repeated observation. 

11 After having looked," says Dr. Dar- 
" win, " long at the meridian sun, in 
" making some of the preceding experi- 
" ments, till the disk faded into a pale 
" blue, I frequently observed a bright 
" blue spectrum of the sun in other 

* Zoonomia, Sect, xi, 2. 



THEORY OF APPARITIONS. 19 

'-' objects all the next and the succeeding 
" day, which constantly occurred when 
" I attended to it, and frequently when 
" I did not attend to it. When I closed 
" and covered my eyes, this appeared 
"of a- dull yellow; and at other times 
" mixed with the colours of other objects 
" on which it was thrown."* 

It is scarcely necessary to mention the 
well-known experiment of giving a rota- 
tory motion to a piece of burning wood, 
the effect of which is to exhibit a com- 
plete fiery circle to the eye. 

To this principle of a renewal of 
impressions formerly made by different 
objects, belongs the idle amusement of 
tracing landscapes, and pictures of vari- 
ous composition, in the discoloured spots 
of an old wall. This may be truly called 
a waking dream, as it is composed of 
the shreds and patches of past sensations ; 
yet there are, perhaps, few persons who 

* Sect. xi. 8. 



20 THEORY OF APPARITIONS. 

have not occasionally derived entertain- 
ment from it. It is probably on the 
same principle, that we are to account 
for the appearances of armies marching, 
in desart and inaccessible places, which 
are sometimes beheld by the inhabitants 
of the vallies, in mountainous regions. 
The accidents of light and shade, and 
the interposition of partial fogs, or clouds, 
produce the same effect on the eye, as 
the discoloured patches of the wall ; and 
the rolling of the mist adds motion to the 
spectral images. 

In like manner, recollected images 
are attributed to the moving lights, in 
the splendid exhibitions of the Aurora 
Borealis. The Icelander beholds in them 
the spirits of his ancestors;* and the 
vulgar discern encountering armies, and 
torrents of blood, in the lambent meteors 
of a winter-sky. The humble diversion 
of seeing pictures in the fire, which 

.* Voyage d' Islande, in the Ambigu. 



THEORY OF APPARITIONS. 21 

occupies children of smaller growth in 
the nursery, is calculated on the same 
principles. In some cases, the imagina- 
tion is assisted by physical causes, in a 
very imposing manner, as in the instance 
of the Giant of the Broken,* in Ger- 



* I subjoin the original account, as it will amuse 
the reader. 

" In the course of my repeated tours through the 
Harz,* I ascended the Broken twelve times ; but I 
had the good fortune only twice, (both times about 
Whitsuntide) to see that atmospheric phenomenon, 
called the Spectre of the Broken, which appears to 
me worthy of particular attention, as it must, no 
doubt, be observed on other high mountains, which 
have a situation favorable for producing it. The first 
time I was deceived by this extraordinary pheno- 
menon, I had clambered up to the summit of the 
Broken very early in the morning, in order to wait 
for the inexpressibly beautiful view of the sun rising 
in the east. The heavens were already streaked with 
red j the sun was just appearing above the horizon in 
full majesty, and the most perfect serenity prevailed 
throughout the surrounding country, when the other 
Harz mountains in the south west, towards the Worm 
mountains, &c lying under the Broken began to be 

* The Harz mountains are situated in Hanover. 
B 



22 THEORY OF APPARITIONS. 

many, the 'nursing mother' of ghosts. 
The giant was seen to occupy the 
summit of a mountain, at certain 
periods, to the inexpressible amaze- 
ment of the inhabitants of the valley, 
and of travellers. After many years of 
alarm and wonder, a passenger, while 
he was contemplating the dreadful appa- 
rition, was obliged to raise his hand 
quickly to his head, to secure his hat 
from being carried away, by a gust of 



covered by thick clouds. Ascending at that moment 
the granite rocks called the Tempelskanzel, there 
appeared before me, though at a great distance, to- 
wards the Worm mountains and the Achtermaunshohe, 
the gigantic figure of a man, as if standing on a large 
pedestal. But scarcely had I discovered it when it 
began to disappear, the clouds sunk down speedily 
and expanded, and I saw the phenomenon no more. 
The second time, however, I saw this spectre some- 
what more distinctly, a little below the summit of the 
Broken, and near the Heinnichshohe, as I was look- 
in^ at the sun rising, a.bout four o'clock in the morning. 
The weather was rather tempestuous; the sky towards 
the level country was pretty clear, but the Harz 
mountains had attracted several thick cloudy, which 
had been hovering round them, and which beginning 



THEORY OF APPARITIONS. 23 

wind. The giant immediately perform- 
ed a similar motion ; when the traveller 
bowed, the giant bowed in return ; and 
after various experiments, it was ascer- 
tained, that the portentous appearance 
was nothing more than the shadow of 
the traveller, reflected from a dense 
white cloud, opposed to the sun. 

I remember to have heard, many- 
years ago, a relation of a similar nature, 



on the Broken confined the prospect. In these 
clouds, soon after the rising of the sun, I saw my own 
shadow, of a monstrous size, move itself for a couple 
of seconds in clouds, and the phenomenon disappeared. 
It is impossible to see this phenomenon, except when 
the sun is at such an altitude as to throw his rays upon 
the body in a horizontal direction; for, if he is higher, 
the shadow is thrown rather under the body than be- 
fore it. In the month of September last year, as I 
was making a tour through the Harz with a very 
agreeable party, and ascended the Broken, I found an 
excellent account, and explanation of this pheno- 
menon, as seen by M. Haue on the 23rd of May 
1797, in his diary of an excursion to that mountain. 
I shall therefore take the liberty of transcribing it. 



24 THEORY OF APPARITIONS. 

from a gentleman, who underwent the 
deception. 

He was benighted, while travelling 
alone, in a remote part of the highlands 
of Scotland, and was compelled to ask 
shelter for the evening, at a small, lonely 
hut. When he was to be conducted to 
his bed-room, the landlady observed, 
with mysterious reluctance, that he 
would find the window very insecure. 



" After having been here for the thirtieth time," 
says M. Haue, " and, besides other objects of my 
attention, having procured information respecting the 
above-mentioned atmospheric phenomenon, I was at 
length so fortunate as to have the pleasure of seeing it j 
and perhaps my description may afford satisfaction to 
others who visit the Broken through curiosity. The 
sun rose about four o'clock, and the atmosphere being 
quite serene towards the east, his rays could pass with- 
out any obstruction over the Heinnichshohe^ In the 
south west, however,. towards the Achtermaunshohe, 
a brisk west wind carried before it their transparent 
vapours,, which were not yet condensed into thick 
heavy clouds. About a quarter past four I went to- 
wards the inn, and looked round to see whether the 
atmosphere would permit me to have a free prospect 



THEORY OF APPARITIONS. 25 

On examination, part of the wall ap- 
peared to have been broken down, to 
enlarge the opening. After some en- 
quiry, he was told, that a pedlar, who 
had lodged in the room a short time 
before, had committed suicide, and was 
found hanging behind the door, in the 
morning. According to the superstition 
of the country, it was deemed improper 
to remove the body through the door of 
the house; and to convey it through 



to the southwest; when I observed, at a very great 
distance towards the Achlermaunshohe, a human 
figure of a monstrous size. A violent gust of wind 
having almost carried away ray hat> I clapped my 
hand to it by moving my arm towards my head, and 
the colossal figure did the same. The pleasure which 
I felt on this discovery can hardly be described ; for 
I had already walked many a weary step in the hope 
of seeing this shadowy image without being able to 
satisfy my curiosity I immediately made another 
movement by bending my body, and the colossal 
figure before me repeated it. 1 was desirous of doing 
the same thing once more, but my colossus had 
vanished. I remained in the same position, waiting 
to see whether it would return, and in a few minutes 
it again made its appearance in the Achtermaunshohe, 
B 3 



26 THEORY OF APPARITIONS. 

the window was impossible, without 
removing part of the wall. Some hints 
were dropped, that the room had been 
subsequently haunted by the poor man's* 
spirit. 

My friend laid his arms, properly pre- 
pared against intrusion of any kind, by 
the bed-side, and retired to rest, not 
without some degree of apprehension. 
He was visited, in a dream, by a fright- 



I paid my respects to it a second time and it did the 
same to me. I then called the landlord of the Broken; 
and having both taken the same position which I had 
taken alone, we looked toward the Achtermaunshohe, 
but saw nothing. We had not, however, stood long, 
when two such colossal figures were formed over the 
above eminence, which repeated our compliment by 
bending their bodies as we did ; after which they 
vanished. We retained our position; kept our eyes 
fixed upon the same spot, and in a little the two 
figures again stood before us, and were joined by a 
third. Every movement that we made by bending our 
bodies, these figures imitated — but with this difference,' 
that the phenomenon was sometimes weak and faint, 
sometimes strong and well defined. Having thus had 
an opportunity of discovering the whole secret of this 



THEORY OF APPARITIONS. 27 

ful apparition, and awaking in agony, 
found himself sitting up in bed, with a 
pistol grasped in his right hand. On 
casting a fearful glance round the room, 
he discovered, by the moon-light, a 
corpse, dressed in a shroud, reared erect, 
against the wall, close by the window. 
With much difficulty, he summoned up 
resolution to approach the dismal object, 
the features of which, and the minutest 
parts of its funeral apparel, he perceived 
distinctly. He passed one hand over it ; 



phenomenon, I can give the following information to 
such of my readers" as may be desirous of seeing it 
themselves. When the rising sun, and according to 
analogy the case will be the same at the setting sun, 
throws his rays over the Broken upon the body of a 
man standing opposite to fine light clouds floating 
around» or hovering past him, he needs only fix his 
•eye steadfastly upon them, and in all probability, he 
will see the singular spectacle of his own shadow ex- 
tending to the length of five or six hundred feet, at 
the distance of about two miles before him. This is 
one of the most agreeable phenomena, I ever had an 
opportunity of remarking on the great observations of 
Germany, Philosophical Magazine, vol. i. page 232. 
B 4 



28 THEORY OF APPARITIONS. 

felt nothing ; and staggered back to the 
bed. After a long interval, and much 
reasoning with himself, he renewed his 
investigation, and at length discovered 
that the object of his terror was produced 
by the moon-beams, forming a long, 
bright image, through the broken win- 
dow, on which his fancy, impressed by 
his dream, had pictured, with mischiev- 
ous accuracy, the lineaments of a body 
prepared for interment. Powerful asso- 
ciations of terror, in this intance, had 
excited the recollected images with un- 
common force and effect. 

In another instance, related by an 
Italian writer, whole multitudes were 
deceived for several hours, by an appa- 
rition of a more specious kind. A croud 
was assembled in the streets of Florence, 
earnestly beholding the image of an 
angel, hovering in the sky, and expect- 
ing some miraculous consequences. He 
soon perceived, that the deception was 



THEORY OF APPARITIONS. 29 

produced by a partial mist, which co- 
vered the dome of the church, and left 
the gilded figure of an angel, which 
surmounted the building, illuminated 
by the rays of the sun. Without the 
presence of a philosopher, this would 
have passed for a supernatural appear- 
ance. 



30 THEORY OF APPARITIONS. 



CHAP. II. 

A lawyer's argument for the existence 6f 
witchcraft — Proofs of spectral impres- 
sions, from recollected perceptions — New 
England witches — Cardan — Donne — 
Jonson — The maid of France— and 
other visionaries. 



AN a compilation, on the duties of a 
Justice of Peace, published by Nelson, 
we meet with a proof of the existence 
of witchcraft, which the editor appears 
to have thought irrefragable > " It seems/* 
saith he, " that there must formerly 
" have been such a crime as witchcraft, 
" because divers statutes have been made 
" against it." Were we to reason in the 
same manner, respecting demoniacal 



THEORY OF APPARITIONS. 31 

agency, in medical cases, proof could 
be brought, (particularly from the older 
German writers), that medicines have 
been administered, for the purpose of 
expelling the devil from human bodies, 
into which it was supposed that he had 
entered, and that many different reme- 
dies had been employed to this end. 

Instead of resorting to any arguments 
of this nature, I shall now proceed to 
shew, that the forms of objects which 
have no external prototypes, are exhi- 
bited to the mind, in certain states of 
the brain. 

§ n. 

In the course of my professional em- 
ployment, I have frequently conversed 
Avith persons, who imagined that they 
saw demons, ' and heard them speak. 
This species of delusion admits of many, 
gradations, and distinctions, exclusive 
of actual insanity.. 



32 THEORY OF APPARITIONS. 

When the brain is partially irritated, 
the patient fancies that he sees spiders 
crawling over his bed-clothes, or person; 
or beholds them covering the roof and 
walls of his room. If the disease in- 
creases, he imagines that persons who 
are dead, or absent, flit round his bed ; 
that animals croud into his apartment, 
and that all these apparitions speak to 
him. These impressions take place, 
even while he is convinced of their 
fallacy. All this occurs sometimes, 
without any degree of delirium. 

I had -occasion to see a young married 
woman, whose first indication of illness 
was a spectral delusion. She told me, 
that her apartment appeared suddenly 
to be filled with devils, and that her 
terror impelled her to quit the house 
with great precipitation, When she was 
brought back, she saw the whole stair- 
case occupied by diabolical forms, and 
was jn agonies of fear for several days, 



THEORY OF APPARITIONS. 33 

After this first impression wore off, she 
heard a voice tempting her to self- 
destruction, and prohibiting her from 
air exercises of piety. Such was the, 
account given by her, when she was 
sensible of the delusion, yet unable to 
resist the horror of the impression. When 
she was nearly recovered, I had the 
curiosity to question her, as I have 
interrogated others, respecting the forms 
of the demons with which they had 
been alarmed ; but I never could obtain 
any other account, than that they were 
small, very much deformed, and had 
horns and claws, like the imps of our 
terrific modern romances. 

I have been forced to listen with 
much gravity, to a man partially insane, 
who assured me that the devil was lodged 
in his side, and that I should perceive 
him thumping and fluttering there, in 
a manner which would perfectly con- 
vince me of his presence. 



34 THEORY OF APPARITIONS. 

Another lunatic believed that he had 
swallowed the devil, and had retained 
him in his stomach. He resisted the 
calls of nature during several days, lest 
he should set the foul fiend at liberty. 
I overcame his resolution, however, by 
administering an emetic in his food. 

In Mather's* Wonders of the invisible 
JVorld, containing the trials of the Ame- 
rican witches, in 1692, a work which 
may be regarded as official, it appears 
that the visions of several persons who 
thought themselves bewitched, were oc- 
casioned by the night-mare. 

On the trial of Bridget Bishop, at 
Salem, for example ; " John Cook testi- 
" fied, that about five or six years ago, 
" one morning about sun-rise, he was 
" in his chamber assaulted by the shape 
" of this prisoner, which looked on him, 
'grinned at him, and very much hurt 
*' him with a blow on the side -of the 



THEORY OF APPARITIONS. 35 

" head." " Richard Ceman testi- 

'■' fied, that eight years ago, as he lay 
" awake in his bed, with a light burning 
" in the room, he was annoyed with 
'• the apparition of this Bishop and of 
" two more that were strangers to him, 
" who came and oppressed him so, that 
" he could neither stir himself, nor 
" wake any one else," &c 3 . 

Again, on the trial of Susannah Martin, 
" Bernard Peache testified, that being in 
" bed, on the Lord's day night, he heard 
" a scrabbling at the window, whereat 
" he then saw Susannah Martin come in 
" and jump down upon the floor. She 
" took hold of this deponent's feet, and 
" drawing his body up into one heap, 
" she lay upon him near two hours; in 
" all which time he could neither speak 
" nor hear." 

In the introduction to his history of 
the trials, which were conducted on such 
evidence, Mather gravely says ; 



36 Theory of apparitions. 

" Tis, as I remember, the learned 
" Scribonius, who reports, that one of 
" his acquaintance, devoutly making his 
" prayers on the behalf of a person 
" molested by evil spirits, received from 
" those evil spirits an horrible blow over 
" the face : and I may myself expect 
" not few or small buffetings from evil 
" spirits, for the endeavours wherewith 
" I am now going to encounter them. 
" I am far from insensible, that at this 
" extraordinary time of the Devil's com- 
" ing down in great wrath upon us, there 
'f are too many tongues and hearts there- 
" by set on fire of hell, that the various 
" opinions about the witchcrafts which 
" of later time have troubled us, are 
" maintained by some with so much 
" loud fury, as if they could never be 
" sufficiently stated, unless written in 
" the liquor wherewith witches use to 
" write their covenants ; and that he 
" who becomes an author at such a 
" time, had need be fenced with iron, 
11 and the staff of a spear" 



THEORY OF APPARITIONS. 37 

Stoughton, the Lieutenant-Governor 
of New England, affixed his approbation 
to this book, vouching for the truth of 
the statements, and declaring that all 
good men would " greatly rejoice, that 
" the spirit of the Lord had thus enabled 
" him (Mather) to lift up a standard 
" against the infernal enemy, that hath 
" been coming in like a flood upon us." 
Such was the force of this memorable 
fit of national insanity, during which 
torrents of innocent blood were shed, by 
the misguided judges and juries, under 
the impression that they were actually 
invaded by a legion of devils ; the part 
of which was really performed by them- 
selves. 

Nothing, indeed, can be added to the 
diligence of Remy, or Remigius, with 
respect to the forms of demons. He was 
a commissioner for the trial of witches, 
in Lorrain, and as he informs us, in the 



38 THEORY OF APPARITIONS. 

course of fifteen years, he condemned 
nine hundred criminals to the stake. 
His book is one of the most remarkable 
productions of credulity ; for the mon- 
strous absurdities which it contains are 
supported by juridical proofs, most of 
which evidently proceeded from spectral 
impressions, when they were not ex- 
torted by torture. 

My edition of this work, which is 
become very rare, was printed by Vin- 
centi, at Lyons, m 1595. It is entitled, 
D^MONOLATREIA. The trials appear to 
have begun in 1583. Mr. Remy seems 
to have felt great anxiety to ascertain the 
exact features and dress of the demons, 
with whom many of the persons sup- 
posed themselves to be familiar. Yet 
nothing transpired, in his examinations, 
which varied from the usual figures 
exhibited by the gross sculptures and 
paintings of the middle age. They are 



THEORY OF APPARITIONS. 39 

said to be black-faced,* with sunk, but 
fiery eyes, their mouths wide, and smell- 
ing of sulphur ; their hands hairy, with 
claws : their feet horny and cloven. 

* Lib. i. p. 70, 77. Nam aut in vultu foeditas 
est, ac turpitudo, aut uncis, hamisque, quales obscae- 
nis vulturibus insunt manus pedesve depravatos ha- 
bent, aut denique insolita, atque insigni aliqua nota 
quae naturae immanitatem prodant, conspicuos se os- 
tendunt. Joannes Piscator, Henaezel ; Salome, Ca- 
thariha Balandrcea, Nicolaea Ganatia, Sennel Armen- 
taria, et Joanna Gerardina, retuierunt se & saepe, et 
otiose, atque attente considerasse suos Magistellos, 
cum prcesenies colloquerentur ; observasseque semper 
il lis obscuras atrasque fuisse facies : ac (quod Jorman- 
des dicit de Hunnis, quos Demonibus incubis satos 
ferunt) offae similes: lumina penitus abdita, flammaa 
tamen instar micantia : Oris rictus sparsos, profundos, 
ac perpetuo olidi, sulphureique aliquid aestuantes : 
manus strigosas, et villis atque hamis deformes : pedes 
corfieos bifidosque : staturam nunquam justam, sed aut 
brevitate aut vastitate semper aliqua insolentem, totam- 
que adeo Seriem extra modum. 

Addit Alexia Belhoria, ilium se aliquando vidissg 
capite, vel pede altero truncum, mutilumque, cum 
forte saltationes nocturnas una cum suis agitaret. Quae 
res me in memoriam inducit ejus rumoris, qui me 
puero circumferebatur de Empusis, quarum frequentes 
C 2 



40 THEORY OF APPARITIONS. 

Not only are the voices and stature of 
the demons described by Remy's autho- 
rities, but many other extraordinary cir- 
cumstances are recorded, which might 
have been omitted with great propriety. 
The curiosity of the worthy judge seems 
to have been as unlimited as his credu- 
lity. I ought to add, that his book is 

de nocte choreae in triviis turn videri ferebantur (la 
Mequie Hennequin) id est, familiam Hellequinam 
vocitabant : nam Hellequinos ab incubis Daemonibus 
suam traxisse originem non ignobiles Scriptores pro- 
diderunt. 

Nicolaea Ganatia, Eva Hesoletia, Jana Nigra 
Armacuviana, ac pleraeque alias vocera illis esse aiunt, 
qualem emittunt, qui os in dolium> aut testam rimo- 

sam, insertum habent Aut certe exilem et 

debilem, p. SO. 

In the 6th chapter, Remy has indulged his curio- 
sity in a most extraordinary, and almost reprehensible 
manner. 

Ab hoc qui nobis istos concubitus, succubitusque 
Daemonum memorant uno ore loquuntur omnes, nihil 
iis frigidius &c. The other details are too shocking 
to be repeated, p. 55. 



THEORY OF APPARITIONS. 41 

written in Latin, in a good style, and 
bears marks of considerable erudition. 

The result of all these inquiries has 
been, that recollected images only are 
presented to the persons labouring under 
delusions of this nature. 

But the most remarkable and decisive 
narrative of this kind was published, 
some years ago, by Nicolai, the cele- 
brated author and bookseller, of Berlin. 
" Those who pretend to have seen and 
i( heard ghosts obstinately maintain, that 
" they perceived these apparitions by 
li means of their senses. In order to 
" defeat that belief, we generally desire 
*' them to consider how many people have 
" been imposed on by artful novices, and 
" how liable we are to deceive ourselves ; 
■" we advise them to lay hold of the sup- 
*' posed spectres; assuring them that diey 
** are generally found to be of a very cor- 
*' poreal nature. But those who have a 
C 3 



42 THEORY OF APPARITIONS. 

" predilection for the miraculous, pay 
" no regard to these objections; insisting 
" that the productions of their disordered 
" imaginations are real beings. We can- 
" not therefore collect too many of such 
" well substantiated facts, as shew how- 
" easily our imagination imposes on us 
" erroneous notions, and deludes not 
" only delirious persons but even those 
" who are in full possession of their facul- 
" ties, by causing them to see phantasms 
" which scarcely can be distinguished 
" from real appearances." 

" I have myself experienced a case of 
" this nature, which to me appears highly 
" remarkable, both psychologically and 
" medicinally ; I saw P in a state of mind 
" completely sound, and after the first 
" terror was over, with perfect calmness, 
" for nearly two months, almost constantly 
" and involuntarily a vast number of hu- 
" man and other forms, and even heard 
" their voices, though all this was merely 



THEORY OF APPARITIONS. A3 

4t the consequence of a diseased state of 
" the nerves and an irregular circulation 
" of the blood." 

" It being a matter of considerable im- 
" portance that an incident of this nature 
*i should be observed with the strictest at- 
" tention, and related, together with all 
" collateral circumstances, with the most 
" conscientious fidelity, I shall not omit 
" any thing of which I retain a clear 
" recollection. The truth of what I am 
" going to advance will not require a far- 
" ther testimony, as Dr. Selle, who was 
" my physician and was daily informed 
" by me of every trifling occurrence and 
" change that happened, is still living, 
" and will, by all who know him, be most 
" readily admitted as an unobjectionable 
" witness. During the ten latter months of 
" the year 1 790, I had experienced seve- 
" ral melancholy incidents which deeply 
" affected me, particularly in September, 
u from which time I suffered an almost 
C 4 



44 THEORY OF APPARITIONS. 

" uninterrupted series of misfortunes that 
" afflicted me with the most poignant grief. 
" I was accustomed to be bled twice a 
" year, and this had been done once on 
" the 9th of July, but was omitted to be 
" repeated at the end of the year 1790. 
"I had, in 1783, been suddenly taken 
" with a violent vertigo, which my phy- 
" sicians imputed to obstructions in the 
" finer vessels of the abdomen, brought 
m on by a sedentary lite and a continual 
" exertion of the mind. This indisposition 
" was successfully removed by means of 
" a more regular and strict diet; particu- 
'" larly efficacious in the beginning I had 
'" found leeches to the arms, and they 
f* were afterwards repeated two or three 
" times annually when I felt violent con- 
" gestions in the head. The last leeches 
" which had been put on, previous to the 
" appearance of the phantasms of whicrf 
'• I am about to speak, had been applied 
f on the first of March 1790, less blood 
" had consequently been evacuated in 



THEORY OF APPARITIONS. 45 

" 1790 than was usual with me, and from 
" September, I was constantly occupied in 
" business that required the most unre- 
" mitted exertion, and was rendered still 
" more perplexing by frequent interrup- 
" tions." 

" I had, in January and February of the 
" year 1791, the additional misfortune to 
" experience several extremely unpleasant 
" circumstances, which were followed on 
" the 24th of February by a most violent 
" altercation. My wife and another person 
" came into my apartment in the morning 
" in order to console me, but I was too 
" much agitated by a series of incidents 
" which had most powerfully affected my 
" moral feeling, to be capable of attend ing 
•' to them ; on a sudden I perceived, at 
" about the distance of ten steps, a form 
" like that of a deceased person, I pointed 
" at it, asking my wife if she did not see 
" it ? It was but natural that she should 
'* not see any thing, my question there- 



46 THEORY OF APPARITIONS. 

" fore alarmed her very much, and she 
" sent immediately for a physician, the 
" phantasm continued about eight mi- 
" nutes. I grew at length more calm, 
" and being extremely exhausted, fell 
" into a restless sleep which lasted about 
" half an hour ; the physician ascribed 
" the apparition to a violent mental emo- 
" tion, and hoped that there would be no 
" return, but the violent agitation of my 
" mind had in some way disordered my 
" nerves, and produced farther conse- 
" quences which deserve a more minute 
'? description." 

*' At four in the afternoon, the form 
*' which I had seen in the morning re- 
" appeared. I was by myself when this 
'i happened, and being rather uneasy at 
" the incident, went to my wife's apart- 
" ment, but there likewise I was prevented 
" by the apparition, which, however, at 
*' intervals disappeared, and always pre- 
" sented itself in a standing posture : about 
*' six o'clock there appeared also several 



THEORY OF APPARITIONS. 47 

" walking figures, which had no connec- 
" tion with the first." 

" I cannot assign any other cause of all 
u this, than a continued rumination on the 
" vexations I had suffered, which, though 
" calmer, I could not forget, and the con- 
" sequences of which I meditated tocoun- 
" teract ; these meditations occupied my 
" mind three hours afterdinner, just when 
" my digestion commenced. I consoled 
" myself at last with respect to the disagree- 
" able incident which had occasioned the 
" first apparition, but the phantasms con- 
" tinued to encrease and change in the 
" most singular manner, though I had 
" taken the proper medicine and found 
" myself perfectly well. As when the first 
" terror was over, I beheld the phantasms 
" with great emotion taking them for what 
" they really were, remarkable consequen- 
" ces of an indisposition, I endeavoured to 
" collect myself as much as possible, that 
" I might preserve a clear consciousness of 



48 THEORY OF APPARITIONS. 

" the changes which should take place 
" within myself; I observed these phan- 
" tasms very closely, and frequently re- 
" fleeted on my antecedent thoughts to 
" discover, if possible, by means of what 
" association of ideas exactly these forms 
" presented themselves to my imagination ; 
" I thought at times I had found a clue, 
" but taking the whole together I could 
" not make out any natural connection 
" between the occupations of my mind, 
" my occupations, my regular thoughts, 
" and the multifarious forms which now 
" appeared to me, and now again dis- 
" appeared. After repeated and close ob- 
" servations, and calm examination, I was 
" unable to form any conclusion relative 
" to the origin and continuation of the 
" different phantasms which presented 
" themselves to me. All that I could infer 
tl was, that while my nervous system was 
" in such an irregular state, such phan- 
6t tasms would appear to me as if I actually 
u saw and heard them; that these illusions 



THEORY OF APPARITIONS. 49 

" were not modified by any known laws 
" of reason, imagination, or the common 
" association of ideas, and that probably 
u other people who may have had similar 
" apparitions, were exactly in the same 
" predicament. The origin of theindivi- 
" dual forms which appeared to me, was 
" undoubtedly founded on the nature of 
" my mind, but the manner in which it 
" was thus affected, will probably remain 
" for ever as inscrutable as the origin of 
" thought and reflection. After the first 
" day the form of the deceased person no 
" more appeared, but in its place, there 
" appeared many other phantasms, some- 
" times representing acquaintances, but 
" mostly strangers, those whom I knew 
u were composed of living and deceased 
" persons, but the number of the latter 
(t was comparatively small. I observed 
" the persons with whom I daily conversed 
" did not appear as phantasms, these repre- 
" senting chiefly persons who lived at some 
" distance from me. I attempted to pro- 



50 THEORY OF APPARITIONS. 

" duce at pleasure phantasms of persons 
" whom I knew by intensely reflecting on 
" their countenance shape &c. but dis- 
" tinctly as I called to my lively imagina- 
" tion the respective shades of three of these 
" persons, I still laboured in vain to make 
" them appear to me as phantasms, though 
" I had before involuntarily seen them in 
" that manner, and perceived them some 
" time after, when I least thoughtof them. 
" The phantoms appeared to me con- 
" trary to my inclination, as if they were 
" presented to me from without, like the 
" phenomena of nature, though they ex- 
" isted no where but within my mind. 
" I could at the same time distinguish 
" between phantasms and real objects, and 
" the calmness with which I examined 
" them, enabled me to avoid the commis- 
" sion of the smallest mistake. I knew 
" exactly when it only appeared to me 
" that the door was opening and a phan» 
" tasm entering the room, and when it 
" actually opened, a real person entered." 



THEORY OF APPARITIONS. 51 

" These phantasms appeared equally 
" clear and distinct at all times and under 
" all circumstances, both when I was by 
" myself and when I was in company, 
" and as well in the day as at night, and 
" in my own house as well as abroad ; they 
" were, however, less frequent when I was 
" in the house of a friend, and rarely 
" appeared to me in the street ; when I 
" shut my eyes these phantasms would 
" sometimes disappear entirely, though 
" there were instances when I beheld them 
" with my eyes closed, yet when they 
" disappeared on such occasions, they ge- 
" nerally reappeared when I opened my 
" eyes. I conversed sometimes with my 
" physician and my wife of the phantasms 
f which at the moment surrounded me; 
" they appeared more frequently walking 
" than at rest, nor were they constantly 
" present. They frequently did not appear 
" for some time, but always reappeared for 
" a longer or a shorter period either singly 
" or in company, the latter however being 



52 THEORY OF APPARITIONS. 

" most frequently the case. I generally 
" saw human forms of both sexes, but they 
" usually appeared not to take the smallest 
" notice of each other, moving as in a 
" market-place, where all are eager to press 
" through the crowd ; at times however 
" they seemed to be transacting business 
" with each other: I also saw several times 
" people on horseback, dogs and birds. All 
" these phantasms appeared to me in their 
" natural size and as distinct as if alive, 
** exhibiting different shades of carnation 
" in the uncovered parts as well as in 
" different colours and fashions in their 
" dresses, though the colours seemed 
" somewhat paler than in real nature, 
*' none of the figures appeared particularly 
" terrible, comical, or disgusting, most of 
" them being of an indifferent shape, and 
" some having a pleasing appearance." 

" The longer these phantoms continued 
" to appear the more frequently did they 
fi return, while at the same time they 



THEORY OF APPARITIONS. 53 

" cncreased in number about four weeks 
" after they had first appeared. I also be- 
" gan to hear them talk, the phantoms 
" sometimes conversed among themselves, 
" but more frequently addressed their dis- 
" course to me ; their speeches were com- 
" monly short and never of an unpleasant 
" turn. At different times there appeared 
" to me both dear and sensible friends of 
" both sexes, whose addresses tended to 
" appease my grief, which had not yet 
" wholly subsided : these consolatory 
" speeches were in general addressed to 
" me when I was alone, sometimes I was 
" accosted by these consoling friends 
" while in company, frequently while 
" real persons were speaking to me. 
u These consolatory addresses consisted 
" sometimes of abrupt phrases, and at 
" others, they were regularly connected." 

"Though both my mind and body were 
" in a tolerable state of sanity all this time, 
" and these phantasms became so familiar 

D 



54 THEORY OF APPARITIONS. 

" to me that they did not cause me the 
" slightest uneasiness, and I even some- 
" times amused myself with surveying 
" them, and spoke jocularly of them to 
" my physician and my wife ; I yet did 
" not neglect to use proper medicines, 
" especially when they hegan to haunt 
" me the whole day, and even at night 
" as soon as I awaked." 

" At last it was agreed that leeches 
" should he again applied to me, as for- 
" merly ; which was actually done, April 
" 20th 1791, at eleven o'clock in the 
" morning. No person was with me be- 
" sides the surgeon ; but during the opera- 
" tion my chamber was crowded with 
" human phantasms of all descriptions. 
" This continued uninterruptedly till 
" about half an hour after four o'clock, 
" just when my digestion commenced. I 
? then perceived that they began to move 
" more slowly. Soon after, their colour 
" began to fade, and at seven o'clock they 



THEORY OF APPARITIONS. 55 

" were entirely white. But they moved 
" very little,' though the forms were as 
" distinct as before : growing however 
" by degrees more obscure ; yet not 
" fewer in number as had generally 
" been the case. The phantoms did 
" not withdraw, nor did they vanish ; 
" which previous to that time had fre- 
" quently happened. They now seemed 
'* to dissolve in the air ; while fragments 
" of some of them continued visible a 
" considerable time. About eight o'clock 
" the room was entirely cleared of my 
" fantastic visitors." 

" Since this time I have felt, twice or 
" three times a sensation as if these 
'.' phantasms were going to re-appear; 
" without however actually seeing any 
" thing. The same sensation surprised 
" me just before I drew up this account, 
" while I was examining some papers 
"relative to these apparitions which I 
M had drawn up in the year 1791." 
D 2 



56 THEORY OF APPARITIONS. 

This is one of the extreme cases of 
delusion, which a man of strong natural 
judgment has ventured to record of him- 
self. Cardan, who fancied himself vi- 
sited by supernatural impulses, never 
produced so marvellous a story. 

Cardan, however, describes himself as 
amused, in his youth, with recollected 
images, similar to those which I have 
described, in the first chapter. Before 
he left his bed, in the morning, he saw 
a succession of figures, composed of 
brazen rings, like links of mail, (though 
he had never seen mail-armour at that 
time,) moving, in a circular direction, 
upwards, from right to left, till they 
disappeared. Castles, houses, animals, 
trees, men in different dresses; trum- 
peters, appearing to blow their trumpets, 
though no sound was heard ; soldiers, 
and landscapes; ail passed before him, 
in circular compartments, " Videbam 
iC ego imagines diversas quasi corporum 



THEORY OF APPARITIONS. 57 

f' asreorum. (Constare enini videbantur 
* e ex annulis minimis, quales sunt lori- 
" carum, cum tamen loricas nunquam 
" eousque vidissem) ab imo lecti angulo 
" dextro ascendentes per semicirculum, 
" lente et in sinistrum occidentes, ut 
" prorsus non apparerenti Areium, do- 
" morum, animalium, equorum cum 
" equkibus, herbarum, arborum, instru- 
" mentorum musicorum, hominum di- 
*' versorum habituum, vestiumque vari- 
'■'■ arum, tubicines praecipue cum tubis 
" quasi sonantibus, nulla tamen vox aut 
" sonus exandjebatur : prceterea milites, 
■" populos, arva, formasque corporuni 
f. usque ad hune diem mihi in visas : 
" lucos et sylvas, aliaque quorum non 
£( memini, quandoque multarum rerum 
" congeriem simul irruentium, non ta^ 
" men ut se confunderent, sed ut ut pro- 
" perarent. Erant autem perspieua ilia, 
" sed non ita ut proinde esset, ac si non 
ff adessent, nee densa ut oculo peryia 
D 3 



58 THEORY OF APPARITIONS. 

" non essent. Sed ipsi circuli opaci 
" erant spatia prorsus perspicua."* 

Ben Jonson, also, falls under this 
description, from the Heads of Conver- 
sation, published by the executors of 
Drummond of Hawthornden, who have 
deprived posterity of Drummond's ori- 
ginal account of these interesting inter- 
views. Jonson told him, that " when 
" the king came to England, about the 
" time that the plague was in London, 
" he being in the country, at Sir Robert 
" Cotton's house with old Cambden, he 
" saw in a vision his eldest son, then a 
" young child and at London, appear 
" unto him with the mark of a bloody 
" cross on his forehead, as if it had been 
" cut with a sword, at which amazed 
" he prayed unto God, and in the morn- 
" ing he came unto Mr. Cambden's 
" chamber to tell him, who persuaded 

* Cardanus de vita propria, cap. 37. 



THEORY OF APPARITIONS. 59 

" him it was but an apprehension, at 
" which he should not be dejected. In 
" the mean time there came letters from 
" his wife of the death of that boy in 
" the plague. He appeared to him, he 
" said, of a manly shape, and of that 
" growth he thinks he shall be at the 
" resurrection." 

" He said, that he had spent a whole 
*' night in looking to his great toe, about 
" which he hath seen Tartars and Turks, 
" Romans and Carthaginians light in 
" his imagination."* 

Such sights as youthfni poets dream, 
On summer's eve, by haunted stream ! 

That extraordinary, and much misre- 
presented character, the Maid of France, 
appears to have been a visionary of this 
kind, and to have been enthusiastically 
sincere in her belief of supernatural com- 

* Dr uramond's Works, p. 224. 
D 4 



60 THEORY OF APPARITIONS. 

munications. The ancient memoirs of 
this heroine, published by Denys Gode* 
froy, convey a high idea of her sagacity 
and elevation of mind. When she in- 
duced Charles VII. to the bold attempt 
of procuring his inauguration at Rheims, 
she described the celestial voice as having 
said to her, while she was engaged in 
prayer, Fille, va, va, je seray a ton ayde, 
va. 

Her unknown historian adds ; " Elle 
" estoit au reste tres-devote, se confessoit 
" souvent, & recevoit le precieux corps 
" de N. S. Jesus Christ, estoit de tres- 
" belle et bonne vie, et d'honneste con- 
" versation." 

In a very curious letter, written by 
the Sieur de Laval, we meet with some 
characteristic anecdotes of the Maid, to 
whom he was introduced by Charles VII. 
' Et-fit ladite Pucelle tres bonne chere 
* a mon pere & a moy, estant armee de 



THEORY OF APPARITIONS. 61 

« toutes pieces, sauve la tete, et tenant la 
' lance en main ; et apres que fumes de- 
' scendus a selle, j 'allay a son logis la 
( voir; et fit venir le vin, et me dit, qu'elle 
' m'en feroit bientot boire a Paris ; et 
*: semble chose toute divine de son fait, 

* et de la voir et de l'ouyr. et la 

' veis monter a cbeval, armee tout en 
f blanc, sauf la teste, une petite hache 

* en sa main, sur un grand coursier noir 
' qui a l'huis de son logis se demenoit 
' tres fort, et ne souffroit qu'elle montast ; 
i et lors elle dit, menez-le a la croix, 
' qui etoit devant Peglise aupres, au che- 

* min ; et lors ell monta sans qu'il se 
' meut, comme s'il fut lie ; et lors se 
' tourna vers l'huys de Teglise, qui etoit 

* bien prochain, et dit en assez voix de 
' femme : Vous les Prestres et gens d'eglise, 
'faites procession et prieres a Dieu.' 

Upon her trial, as it is repeated by 
Chartier, she spoke with the utmost sim- 
plicity and firmness of her visions : * Que 



62 THEORY OF APPARITIONS. 

' souvent alloit a une belle fontaine au 
1 pays de Lorraine, laquelle elle nom- 
' moit bonne fontaine aux Fees Nostre 
' Seigneur, et en icelluy lieu tous ceulx 
' de pays quand ils avoient fiebvre ils 
' alloient pour recouvrer garison ; et la 
' alloit souvent ladite Jehanne la Pucelle 
' sous un grand arbre qui la fontaine 
' ombroit ; et s'apparurent a elle S te . 
' Katerine et S te . Marguerite qui lui 
' dirent qu'elle allast a ung Cappitaine 
' qu'elles lui nommerent, laquelle y alia 

* sans prendre conge ni a pere ni a mere; 
' lequel Cappitaine la vestit en guise 
« d'homme et l'armoit et lui ceint Pepee, 
' et luy bailla un escuyer et quatre var- 
' lets; et en ce point fut montee" sur un 
' bon cheval ; et en ce point vint aut 
' Roy de France, et lui dit que du Com- 

* mandement de lui estoit venue a lui, et 
' qu'elle le feroit le plus grant Seigneur 
9 du Monde, et qu'il lui fut ordonn6 

* que tretou ceulx qui lui desobeiroient 
' fussent occis sans mercy, et que St. Mi- 



THEORY OF APPARITIONS. 63 

' chel et plusieurs anges lui avoient bailie 
' une. Couronne moult riche pour lui;' 
&c. 

Unquestionably, the temperament which 
disposes men to cultivate the higher and 
graver species of poetry, contributes to 
render them susceptible of impressions of 
this nature. Such a temperament, ex- 
cited by the pathetic circumstances of a 
story, more interesting than any tale of 
fiction, produced the vision of Dr. Donne. 
When residing in Paris, he saw the figure 
of his wife, then in London, pass through 
the room, with her hair hanging loose, 
and carrying a dead child in her arms. 
After reading the exquisite poem which 
he wrote, previous to their separation, 
it is impossible to wonder at an impres- 
sion of such a nature. 

This is, indeed, an instance of that 
species of ecstasy, which is known, in 
the North of Scotland, under the name 



64 THEORY OF APPARITIONS. 

of ' Second-Sight.' Much has been writ- 
ten on this subject; I shall therefore 
only mention two instances, which will 
prove that the spectral impressions cer- 
tainly take place; of their prophetic 
nature, there may be different opinions. 

A gentleman connected with my fa- 
mily, an officer in the army, and cer- 
tainly addicted to no superstition, was 
quartered, early in life, in the middle 
of the last century, near the castle of a 
gentleman in the North of Scotland, 
who was supposed to possess the Second- 
Sight. Strange rumours were afloat, re- 
specting the old chieftain. He had 
spoken to an apparition, which ran 
along the battlements of the house, and 
had never been chearful afterwards. His 
prophetic visions excited surprize, even 
in that region of credulity ; and his 
retired habits favoured the popular opi- 
nion. My friend assured me, that one 
day, while he was reading a play to the 



THEORY OF APPARITIONS. 65 

ladies of the family, the chief, who had 
been walking across the room, stopped 
suddenly, and assumed the look of a 
Seer. He rang the bell, and ordered 
the groom to saddle a horse ; to proceed 
immediately to a seat in the neighbour- 
hood, and to inquire after the health of 
Lady ; if the account was favour- 
able, he then directed him to call at 
another castle, to ask after another lady 
whom he named, 

The reader immediately closed his 
book, and declared that he would not 
proceed till these abrupt orders were 
explained, as he was confident that they 
were produced by the Second-Sight. 
The chief was very unwilling to explain 
himself; but at length he owned, that 
the door had appeared to open, and that 
a little woman, without a head, had 
entered the room ; that the apparition 
indicated the sudden death of some per- 
son of his acquaintance ; and the only 



66 THEORY OF APPARITIONS. 

two persons who resembled the figure, 
were those ladies, after whose health he 
had sent to inquire. 

A few hours afterwards, the servant 
returned, with an account that one of 
the ladies had died of an apoplectic fit, 
about the time when the vision appeared. 

At another time, the chief was con- 
fined to his bed, by indisposition, and 
my friend was reading to him, in a 
stormy winter-night, while the fishing- 
boat, belonging to the castle, was at sea. 
The old gentleman repeatedly expressed 
much anxiety respecting his people; and 
at last exclaimed, my boat is lost ! The 
colonel replied, how do you know it, Sir? 
, — He was answered ; I see two of the 
boatmen bringing in the third drowned, 
all dripping wet, and laying him down 
close beside your chair. The chair was 
shifted, with great precipitation ; in the 
course of the night, the fishermen re- 



THEORY OF APPARITIONS. 67 

turned, with the corpse of one of the 
boatmen. 

MARTIN, who has given a very parti- 
cular account of Seers, in the western 
Islands, mentions a young woman, who 
was troubled, during four or five years, 
with the constant appearance of her own 
image before her, the back being turned 
towards her. No event was connected 
with this spectral impression. 

But one of the most remarkable Seers 
on record, was John Beaumont, who 
published a ' treatise of spirits, appari- 
tions, witchcrafts, and other magical 
practices/ in 1705. He appears to have 
been a man of a hypochondriacal dispo- 
sition, with a considerable degree of 
reading, but with a strong bias to credu- 
lity. His collections of stories are enter- 
taining; but my business is with his 
visions, which shew in a most astonish- 
ing manner, how far the mind may be 



68 THEORY OF APPARITIONS. 

deceived, without the occurrence of ac- 
tual derangement. They will be de- 
tailed in die next chapter. Had this 
man, instead of irritating his mental dis- 
ease, by the study of the Platonic philo- 
sophers, placed himself under the care 
of an intelligent physician, he would 
have regained his tranquillity, and the 
world would have lost a most extraordi- 
nary set of confessions. 



THEORY OF APPARITIONS. 69 



CHAP. III. 

Beaumont's Visions — Those of To.sso — 
Kutter — Drabicius — Arise Evans — 
Bovet. 

JL HYSICIANS have sometimes occasion 
to regret the prolixity of the statements, 
which they receive from their patients. 
Beaumont has been rather more diffusive 
than usual ; for his book, which may be 
considered as a narrative of his malady, 
contains four hundred pages, in octavo. 
It is, however very much to my pur- 
pose, for it exhibits the disease of spec- 
tral vision, in its full strength and per- 
manency. 

E 



70 THEORY OF APPARITIONS. 

Like Nicolai, he sometimes saw a 
multitude of men and women about him, 
both in the day and night. " So it was 
" with myself," says he, " for I saw 
" hundreds, though I never saw any in 
" the night-time, without a fire, or can- 
" die-light, or in the moonshine, and 
" as the person mentioned (by Aubrey) 
" had two particular spirits there named, 
" which constantly attended him, be- 
" sides others without names, so it was 
" with myself; two spirits constantly at- 
" tending me, night and day, for above 
" three months together ; who called 
" each other by their names, and several 
" spirits would often call at my chamber 
" door, and ask whether such spirits 
" lived there, calling by their names, 
" and they would answer, they did. 
"■ As for the other spirits that attended 
" me, I heard none of their names men- 
" tioned, only I asked one spirit which 
" came for- some nights together, and 
fe rung a little bell in my ear, what his 



THEORY OF APPARITIONS. 7i 

" name was, who answered Ariel. We 
" find that one of the spirits, who 
" attended the second-sighted person, 
" appeared as a boy, the other as a girl ; 
" but the two that constantly attended 
" myself, appeared both in women's 
" habit, they being of a brown com- 
' plexion, and about three foot in sta- 
" ture ; they had both black, loose net- 
" work gowns, tyed with a black sash 
" about the middle, and within the net- 
" work appeared a gown of a golden 
*' colour, with somewhat of a light strik- 
" ing through it. Their heads were not 
" drest with top-knots, but they had 
" white linen caps on, with lace on 
" them, about three-fingers breadth, and 
" over it they had a black loose net-work 
■" hood. 

" As the foresaid second-sighted per- 

" sons, sitting by the fire, with others 

"in the winter-time, would see spirits 

" standing by, and often seem angry 

E 2 



72 THEORY OF APPARITIONS. 

" and disturbed, though nothing visible 
" to others moved him ; so, as I have 
" been sitting by the lire with others, 
" I have seen several spirits, and pointed 
" to the place where they were, telling 
" the company they were there. And 
" one spirit, whom I heard calling to 
" me, as he stood behind me, on a 
" sudden clapped his finger to my side, 
" which I sensibly perceived, and started 
" at it, and as 1 saw one spirit come in 
" at the door, which I did not like, I 
" suddenly laid hold of a pair of tongs, 
" and struck at him with all my force, 
" whereupon he vanished. 

a &## i must declare, that I would 
" not for the whole world undergo what 
" I have undergone, upon spirits com- 
« ing twice to me ; their first coming 
'" was, most dreadful to me, the thing 
" beinp- then altogether new, and con- 
" sequently more surprizing, though at 
« the first coming they did not appear 



THEORY OF APPARITIONS. 73 

*' to me, but only called to me at my 
" chamber windows, rung bells, sung 
" to me, and played on music, &c. but 
'.' the last coming also carried terror 
" enough ; for when they came, being 
'• only five in number, the two women 
*' beibre mentioned, and three men, 
" (though afterwards there came hun- 
i( dreds) they told me they would kill 
"" me, if I told any person in the house 
" of their being there, which put me in 
" some consternation, and I made a 
" servant sit up with me four nights in 
■" my chamber before a fire, it being 
*• in the Chiistmas Holidays, telling no 
" person of their being there. One of 
" these spirits in women's dress, lay 
**■ down upon the bed by me every 
" night ; and told me if I slept, the 
*' spirits would kill me, which kept me 
*-'■ waking for three nights. In the mean 
■*' time, a near relation of mine went 
<i (though unknown to me) to a phy- 
■** sician of my acquaintance, desiring 
E 3 



74 THEORY OF APPARITIONS. 

" him to prescribe me somewhat for 
" sleeping, which he did, and a sleeping 
" potion was brought me, but I set it 
" by, being very desirous and inclined 
" to sleep without it. The fourth night 
" I could hardly forbear sleeping, but 
" the spirit, lying on the bed by me, told 
" me again, I should be killed if I slept; 
" whereupon I rose, and sate by the 
<e fire-side, and in a while returned to 
" my bed ; and so I did a third time, 
" but was still threatened as before : 
" whereupon I grew impatient, and 
" asked the spirits what they would 
" have ? Told them I had done the 
" part of a christian, in humbling myself 
" to God, and feared them not, and 
'■' rose from my bed, took a cane, and 
" knocked at the ceiling of my cham- 
" ber, a near relation of mine lying then 
" over me, who presently rose and came 
" down to me, about two o'clock in the 
" morning, to whom I said, you have 
" seen me disturbed these four days past, 



THEORY OF APPARITIONS. 75 

" and that I have not slept; the occasion 
" of it was, that five spirits, which are 
" now in the room with me, have 
" threatened to kill me if I told any 
" person of their being here, or if I 
" slept, but I am not able to forbear 
" sleeping longer, and acquaint you 
" with it, and now stand in defiance of 
" them ; and thus I exerted myself about 
'" them ; and notwithstanding their con- 
" tinued threats, I slept very well the 
" next night, and continued so to do, 
" though they continued with me above 
" three months, day and night."* 

The celebrated visions of Tasso appear 
to have been of the same nature. He 
fancied that he beheld a celestial being, 
with whom he held converse, in the 
presence of spectators, who perceived no 
apparition, and who heard no voice but 
that of the poet. Would that we could 

* Beaumont's Treatise, p. 91, 4. 
E 4 



76 THEORY OF APPARITIONS. 

have exchanged the narratives of Beau- 
mont's reveries, for those of Tasso ! 

To this class of morbid perceptions, 
belong also the visions of Christopher 
Kotter, and Drabicius, which made a 
considerable noise in the seventeenth 
century. They were published by Co- 
menius, aided by very ghostly engrav- 
ings, under the title of * Lux 6 Tenebris.' 
1 must refer to Bayle, for many curious 
observations respecting the tendency of 
these prophetic rhapsodies : my business 
is only with the faculty of spectral re- 
presentation. 

For this reason, I shall not notice 
Drabicius. As a man of superior infor- 
mation, he might be suspected of politic 
views, in his pretended visions : but 
there can be no doubt that Kotter was 
sincere in his enthusiasm, and was as 
much a Seer as any second-sighted pro- 
phet of the Hebrides. 



THEORY OF APPARITIONS. 77 

Kotter's first vision was detailed by 
him, on oath, before the magistrates of 
Sprottaw, in \6\9. While he was tra- 
velling on foot, in open day-light, in 
June 1616, a man appeared to him, 
who ordered him to inform the civil and 
ecclesiastical authorities, that great evils 
were impending over Germany, for the 
punishment of the sins of the people ; 
after which he vanished. The same 
apparition met him at different times, 
and compelled him at length, by threats, 
to make this public declaration, 

After this, his visions assumed a more 
imposing appearance: on one occasion, 
the angel (for such he was now con- 
fessed to be) shewed him three suns, 
filling one half of the heavens; and nine 
moons, with their horns turned towards 
the east, filling the other half. At the 
same time, a superb fountain of pure 
water spouted from the arid soil, under 
his feet. 



78 THEORY OF APPARITIONS. 

At another time, he beheld a mighty 
lion, treading on the moon, and seven 
other lions around him, in the clouds. 

Sometimes he beheld the encounter 
of hostile armies, splendidly accoutred ; 
sometimes he wandered through palaces, 
whose only inhabitants were devouring 
monsters; or beheld dragons of enormous 
size, in various scenes of action. 

He was at length attended by two 
angels, in his ecstasy ; one of his visions 
at this time was of the most formidable 
and impressive kind.* " On the 13th 



* Die 13 Septembris amb. illi Juvenes ad me 
redierunt, dicentes : Ne metue, sed rei qua? Tibi 
exhibebitur, attende ! 2. Et conspexi ante me subito 
circulum quandam, magni solis instar, rubrum, ac 
■yelut sanguineum : in quo lineaa fuerunt, seu maculae, 
albce & nigra?, tanta mixtura se invicem variantes, 
ut jam nigrarum, jam albarum major cerneretur nume- 
rus : duravitque spectaculum istud per justum spatium. 
3. Et cum ad me dixissent Aspice ! Attende! nihil 
juetue • nihil tibi accidet mali ! 4. Ecce fulmen tribus 



THEORY OF APPARITIONS. 79 

" day of September, says he, both the 
" youths returned to me, saying, be not 
" afraid, but observe the thing which will 
" be shewn to thee. And I suddenly be- 
" held a circle, like the sun, red, and as it 
" were, bloody : in which were black and 
" white lines, or spots, so intermingled, 
" that sometimes there appeared a greater 
" number of blacks, sometimes of white; 
" and this sight continued for some space 



vicibus exigui temporis intervallis sibi succedentibus 
intonuit, tam horrende et terribile, ut totus obriges- 
cerem. 5. Circuius autem ille stabat porro coram me, 
maculaeque albae a nigris disjungebant sese: et circuius 
accessit tam prope mi hi, ut manu tangere potuis- 
sem. Q. Fuit autem tam speciosuft, ut toto vitoe tem- 
pore amaenioris rei speciem nullam viderim : et ma- 
culae albae adeo candidae ac jucundae, ut admirationis 
modum non invenerim. 7. Sed aliae illae maculae a 
nube quadam horribiliter caliginosa. ablatas sunt : in 
qua nube tristem audivi ejulatum,etsi viderem neminem. 
8, Verba tamen ejulatus et lamentorum fuerant, bene 
perceptibilia, haee ; voe nobis qui nos caliginosae nubi 
permisimus abstrahi a rotundo Divinss gratiae sanguine 
rubente circulo, quo nos Dei gratia in Christo dilec- 
tissimo filio suo comprehensos concluserat. 

Luxe Tenebris, p. 119. 



80 THEORY OF APPARITIONS. 

" of time. And when they had said to 
" me, Behold ! Attend ! Fear not ! No evil 
*' will befal thee ! Lo, there were three 
" successive peals of thunder, at short in- 
*' tervals, so loud and dreadful, that I shud- 
" dered all over. But the circle stood 
" before me, and the black and white 
" spots were disunited, and the circle 
" approached so near that I could have 
*' touched it with my hand. And it was 
" so beautiful, that 1 had never in my life 
" seen any thing more agreeable: and the 
" white spots were so bright and pleasant, 
" that I could not contain my admiration. 
" But the black spots were carried away 
" in a cloud of horrible darkness, in which 
" I heard a dismal outcry, though I could 
" see no one. Yet these words of lamen- 
** tation were audible : Woe unto us, who 
" have committed ourselves to the black 
" cloud, to be withdrawn from the circle 
* l coloured with the blood of divine grace, 
ft in which the grace of God, in his well- 
* beloved Son, had inclosed us." 



THEORY OF APPARITIONS. 81 

After several other piteous exclama- 
tions, he saw a procession of many 
thousand persons, bearing palms, and 
singing hymns, but of very small sta- 
ture, enter the red circle, from the black 
cloud, chanting halleluiah. 

A Polish Prophetess made her appear- 
ance, about the same time ; but as there 
was nothing particularly interesting in 
her visions, they may be kept, like the 
madness of Mr. Sheridan's character in 
the Critic, in the back-ground. 

The prophecy of Arise Evans respect- 
ing the Restoration of Charles II. is thus 
detailed by Dr. Warburton, in a letter 
to Dr. Jortin. Evans, as I have men- 
tioned elsewhere, was a mere juggler in 
the dates of his title-pages. The vision 
itself resembles the royal shadows in 
Macbeth. 

" You desired to have a more particular 



82 THEORY OF APPARITIONS. 

"account of a certain prophecy 

" of one Arise Evans, which you have 
" heard some of your friends speak of in 
" terms of astonishment ; as I have his 
" book which is scarce, I am able to give 
'• you that satisfaction. But it may not be 
" amiss first to let you into the character 
" of the prophet. Arise Evans lived and 
" flourished in the last century, during 
" the time of our civil confusions. He 
" was a warm Welshman, and not disposed 
" to be an idle spectator in so busy a. scene. 
" So he left his native country for London, 
'* and finding on his arrival there that 
" Inspiration was all running one way, he 
" projected to make a division of it from 
" the Roundheads to the Cavaliers, and set 
" up for a Prophet of the Royalists. He 
" did, and said many extraordinary things 
" to the grandees of both parties : and it 
" must be owned, he had a spice of what 
" we seldom find wanting in the ingre- 
" dients of a modern prophet, I mean 
" prevarication." 



THEORY OF APPARITIONS. 83 

" Of this lie has himself given us a 
" notable example in the 42nd page of 
" his Tract, called an Echo from Heaven, 
" which, because it contains an uncom- 
*' mon fetch of wit, I shall describe. 
" There are two confessions," says he, 
" subscribed by my hand in the city of 
" London, which if not now, will in 
" after ages be considered. The one was 
" made at the Spittle, and subscribed 
*' with the right hand, in the aforesaid 
" vestry, before Sir Walter Earl ; and 
" that is a confession made by the inner 
" man, or new man ; the other confes- 
" sion is a confession of the flesh, called 
" the outward man or old man ; and 
" the confession made before Green (the 
" Recorder), and subscribed with the 
'* left hand, as the diiference in the 
" writing, being compared, will make 
■' it appear. I know the bench, and the 
" people thought I recanted, but alas ! 
" they were deceived." 



84 THEORY OF APPARITIONS. 

" Well, but this very man has in the 
" 77th and 7 8th pagesof this Echo printed 
" for the author in 12 mo . and sold at his 
" house in Long Alley in Black Friars, 
" 1653, second edition with additions, a 
" prophecy which astonishes all who care- 
" fully consider it. It is in these words, 
" A vision that I had presently after the 
" king's death. — I thought that I was in 
" a great hall like the king's hall, or the 
" castle in Winchester, and there was 
" none there but a judge that sat upon 
" the bench and myself; and as I turned 
" to a window in the north-westward, 
" and looking into the palm of my 
" hand, there appeared to me a face, 
" head and shoulders like the Lord Fair- 
" fax's, and presently it vanished. Again, 
" there arose the Lord Cromwell, and 
" he vanished likewise ; then arose a 
" young face and he had a crown upon 
" his head, and he vanished also ; and 
" another young face arose with a crown 



THEORY OF APPARITIONS. 85 

" upon his head, and he vanished also ; 

" and another ■ young face arose 

" with a crown upon his head, and 
" vanished in like manner ; and as I 
" turned the palm of my hand back 
" again to me and looked, there did 
" appear no more in it. Then I turned 
" to the judge and said to him, there 
" arose in my hand seven ; and five of 
" them" had crowns ; but when I turned 
" my hand, the blood turned to -its veins, 
" and these appeared no more : so I 
" awoke. The interpretation of this vision 
" is, that after the Lord Cromwell, there 
" shall be kings again in England, which 
" thing is signified unto us by those that. 
" arose after him, who were all crowned, 
" but the generations to come may look 
" for a change of the blood, and of the 
'■' name in the royal seat, after five kings 
" once passed, 2 Kings x. 30. (The 
" words referred to in this text are these) 
" And the Lord said unto Jehu, because 
" thou hast done well, &c. thy children 

F 



86 THEORY OF APPARITIONS. 

" of the fourth generation shall sit upon 
" the throne of Israel."* 

Sauvages mentions, that a woman, 
subject to epilepsy, saw, during the 
paroxysm, dreadful spectres, and that 
real objects appeared magnified to an 
extraordinary degree : a fly seemed as 
large as a fowl, and a fowl appeared 
equal in size to an ox. In coloured 
objects, green predominated with her ; 
a curious fact, which I have seen veri- 
fied in other convulsive diseases. A 
very intelligent boy, who was under 
my care for convulsions of the voluntary 
muscles, when he looked at some large 
caricatures, glaringly coloured with red 
and yellow, insisted on it that they were 
covered with green, till his paroxysm 
abated, during which his intellects had 
not been at all affected. 

* Jortin's Rem, on Ecclesiast. Hist. App. to vol. I. 



THEORY OF APPARITIONS. 87 

Among other instances of Suffiisio, 
Sauvages also mentions an aged phy- 
sician of Narbonne, who, during several 
days, saw every object crooked. 

I shall select, as a remarkable instance 
of spectral impressions, a story published 
by. Richard Bovet, in his Pandame- 
num, or the Devil's Clouster, printed 
in 1684. The first appearances were 
probably seen in a dream. Tlie noises, 
on the second night, were perhaps re- 
collected impressions.* 

" About the year 1667, being with 
" some persons of honour in the house of 
" a nobleman in the west country, which 
" had formerly been a nunnery : I must 
" confess I had often heard the servants, 
" and others that inhabited or lodged there, 
" speak much of the noises, stirs, and 
" apparitions that frequently disturbed the 

* Eighth Relation, p. 202. 
F 2 



83 THEORY OF APPARITIONS. 

" house, but had at that time no appre- 
" hensions of it ; for the house being full 
" of stranger's, the nobleman's steward, 
" Mr. C. lay with me in a fine wainscoat- 
" room, called my ladies' chamber; we 
" went to our lodging pretty early, and 
" having a good fire in the room, we 
" spent some time in reading, in which 
" he much delighted : then having got 
•*' into bed, and put out the candles, we 
" observed, the room to be very light, 
" by the brightness of the moon, so that 
" a wager was laid between us, that it 
" was possible to read written hand by 
" that light upon the bed where we lay ; 
" accordingly I drew out of my pocket 
" a manuscript, which he read distinctly 
" in the place where he lay : we had 
" scarce made an end of discoursing 
" about that affair, when I saw (my face 
" being towards the door which was 
" locked) entering into the room, five 
" appearances of very fine and lovely 



THEORY OF APPARITIONS. 89 

*' women, they were of excellent stature, 
" and their dresses seemed very fine, but 
" covered all but their faces, with their 
" light veils, whose skirts trailed largely 
" on the floor. They entered in a file 
" one after the other, and in that posture 
" walked round the room, till the fore- 
" most came, and stood by that side of 
" the bed where I lay (with my left 
" hand over the side of the bed ; for my 
" head rested on that arm, and I deter- 
" mined not to alter the posture in which 
" I was) she struck me upon that hand 
" with a blow that felt very soft, but I 
" did never remember whether it were 
" cold or hot : I demanded in the name 
" of the blessed Trinity, what business 
" they had there, but received no answer; 
" then I spoke to Mr. C. Sir, do you 
" see what fair guests we have come to 
" visit us ? before which they all dis- 
" appeared : I found him in some kind 
" of agony, and was forced to grasp him 
F 3 



90 THEORY OF APPARITIONS. 

" on the breast with my right hand 
" (which was next him underneath the 
" bed-clothes) before I could obtain 
" speech of him ; then he told me that 
" he had seen the fair guests I spoke of, 
" and had heard me speak to them ; but 
" withal said, that he was not able to 
" speak sooner unto me, being extremely 
" affrighted at the sight of a dreadful 
" monster, which assuming a shape, be-. 
" twixt that of a lion and a bear, at- 
" tempted to come upon the bed's foot. 
" I told him, I thanked God nothing so 
" frightful had presented itself to me ; 
'" but I hoped (through his assistance) 
" not to dread the ambages of hell. It 
" was a long time before I could com- 
" pose hiin to sleep, and though he had 
" had many disturbances in his own 
" room, and understood of others in the 
" house, yet he acknowledged he had 
" never been so terrified, during many 
" years abode there. The next day at 



THEORY OF APPARITIONS. 91 

" dinner he shewed to divers persons of 
" principal quality, the mark that had 
" been occasioned on his breast by the 
" gripe I was forced to give him, to get 
" him to speak, and related all the pas- 
" sages very exactly ; after which he 
" protested never to lie more in that 
" room ; upon which I set up a resolu- 
" tion to lodge in it again, not knowing 
" but something of the reason of those 
" troubles might by that means be im- 
" parted to me. The next night, there- 
" fore, I ordered a Bible, and another 
" book to be laid in the room, and 
" resolved to spend my time by the fire 
" in reading and contemplation, till I 
" found myself inclined to sleep : and 
" accordingly having taken leave of the 
" family at the usual hour, I addressed 
" myself to what I had proposed, not 
" going into bed till past one in the 
" morning : a little after I was got into 
" bed, I heard somewhat walk about the 
F 4 



92 THEORY OF APPARITIONS. 

" room, like a woman in a tabby gown 
" trailing about the room ; it made a 
" mighty rushelling noise, but I could 
" see nothing, though it was near as 
" light as the night before: it passed by 
" the foot of the bed and a little opened 
" the curtains, and thence went to a 
" closet door on that side, through 
" which it found admittance, although 
" it was close locked : there it seemed 
" to groan, and draw a great chair with 
" its foot, in which it seemed to sit, and 
" turn over the leaves of a large folio ; 
" which you know make a loud clatter - 
" ing noise ; so it continued in that pos- 
" ture, sometimes groaning, sometimes 
" dragging the chair, and clattering the 
" book till it was pear day ; afterwards 
" I lodged several times in this room, 
" but never met with any molestation." 

" This I can attest to be a true account 
" of what passed in that room the two 



THEORY OF APPARITIONS. 93 

" described nights ; and though Mr. C. 
"be lately dead, who was a very inge- 
" nious man, and affirmed the first part 
" unto many, with whom he was con- 
" versant ; it remains that I appeal to 
" the knowledge of those who have 
" been inhabitants or lodgers in the said 
" house, for what remains, to justify the 
" credibility of the rest/* 



THEORY OF APPARITIONS. 95 



CHAP. IV. 

Medical distinctions of spectral impressions. 
Sepulchral remedies : Preparations of the 
human skull — Mumia — Apparition of 
Ficmus to Michael Mercato. — Warning 
voice to Quarraus. — Visions of Dr. Por- 
dage. Latent lunacy — Exemplified in 
the character of Hamlet. 

AN medicine, we have fine names, at 
least, for every species of disease. The 
peculiar disorder, which I have endea- 
voured to elucidate, is termed generally 
Hallucination, including all delusive 
impressions, from the wandering mote 
before the eye, to the tremendous spec- 
tre, which is equally destitute of exist- 
ence. 



96 THEORY OF APPARITIONS. 

It is unnecessary to my purpose, to 
pursue the subdivisions of this affection, 
which have been traced by nosologists. 
I shall only mention one extreme spe- 
cies, called the Lycanthropia, in which 
the patient imagines himself to have 
become a wolf, abandons society, and 
takes refuge in the woods. These im- 
pressions have no doubt been produced, 
or strengthened by narcotic potions, of 
hyoscyamus, datura stramonium, and 
other deleterious infusions, either igno- 
rantly taken, or maliciously adminis- 
tered. 

But we may well be surprized to find, 
that impressions of this kind are regis- 
tered, under the title of experimental 
philosophy. Dr. Garmann, * in his 
chapter on the ghosts of the dead, in- 
forms us, that " when human salt, 
*' extracted and depurated from the skull 

* De Miraculis Mortuorum. 



THEORY OF APPARITIONS. 97 

" of a man, was placed in a water-dish, 
" and covered with another plate, there 
" appeared next morning, in the mass, 
" figures of men fixed to the cross." 

Another philosopher relates, that, when 
fresh earth from a church-yard was put 
into an oblong plate, after the perform- 
ance of certain ceremonies, a thousand 
spectres were visible in it. 

During the sixteenth century, prepa- 
rations from, the human skull were fa- 
vourite remedies : the moss which was 
found on skulls long-interred, and the 
bones reduced to powder, were often 
prescribed. In a very respectable work, 
WEPFER'S Historic Apoplecticorarn, there 
is a dissertation on this subject, by Dr. 
Emanuel Kaenig,* in which he asserts, 
that on those nights when the human 
skull was pounded in the apothecary's 

* Wepfer. Histor. Apoplectic, p. 459. 



98 THEORY OF APPARITIONS. 

bouse, the family was alarmed by un- 
usual noises, by clappings of the doors 
and windows, by groans, and other 
indications that the spirits of the dead 
were abroad. 

I have never found that any effects of 
this kind were attributed to the MUMIA, 
a favourite remedy of the same period : 
that is, the flesh of mummies, which 
were imported from Alexandria, and 
which was swallowed in the form of 
pills or boluses, by the noble and rich, 
in Europe. The medical writings of that 
time are full of accounts of this horrible 
and useless practice, which was at length 
discontinued, when it was found that 
the Alexandrians, instead of disinterring 
the embalmed mummies of the ancient 
Egyptians, contented themselves with 
exporting the putrid carcases of Jews, 
to which they had easier access.* 

* Garmann de Cadayerum Mumiis. Lib. iii. 
Tit. ii. p. 1042, 3. 



THEORY OF APPARITIONS. 99 

In this manner was anthropophagy 
sanctioned by physicians, even as late as 
the reign of Louis XIV. while some 
writers affected to doubt, whether the 
practice had ever existed. 

§ in. 

From the principles which I have 
established, the reader will easily proceed 
with me, to account for the most im- 
posing relations of apparitions. 

I have shewn that a morbid disposition 
of the brain is capable of producing 
spectral impressions, without any exter- 
nal prototypes. The religion of the 
ancients, which peopled all parts of 
nature with deities of different ranks, 
exposed them, in a peculiar manner, 
to delusions of the imagination ; and I 
have had occasion, in another essay,* 

* On Genius. 



100 THEORY OF APPARITIONS. 

to mention the influence which the doc- 
trines of Plato have exerted, in this 
reso'ect, even since the establishment of 
Christianity. From recalling images by 
an art of memory, the transition is direct 
to beholding spectral objects, which 
have been floating in the imagination. 
Yet, even in the most frantic assemblage 
of this nature, no novelty appears. The 
spectre may be larger or smaller ; it may 
be compounded of the parts of different 
animals ; but it is always framed from 
the recollection of familiar, though dis- 
cordant images. 

The simple renewal of the impressions 
of form or voice, in the case of parti- 
cular friends, is the most obvious, and 
most forcible of these recollections. Of 
this kind, seems to have been the cele- 
brated apparition of Ficinus, to Michael 
Mcrcato, mentioned by Baronius. 

Those illustrious friends, after a long 



THEORY OF APPARITIONS. 101 

discourse on the nature of the soul, had 
agreed that, whoever of the two should 
die first, should, if possible, appear to 
his surviving friend, and inform him of 
his condition in the other world.* 

A short time afterwards, says Baro- 
nius,-|- it happened, that while Michael 
Mercato the elder was studying philo- 
sophy, early in the morning, he sud- 
denly heard the noise of a horse gallop- 
ing in the street, which stopped at his 
door, and the voice of his friend Ficinus 
was heard, exclaiming, O Michael! 
O Michael ! those things are true. As- 
tonished at this address, Mercato rose 
and looked out of the window, where 



* De Apparitionibus mortuorum, Vivis ex Pacto 
factis. Lips 1709. 

f Baronii Annales. — This story was told to Baronius, 
by the grandson of Mercato, who was Proto-nothary 
of the church, and a man of the greatest probity, as 
well as of general knowledge. 



102 THEORY OF APPARITIONS. 

he saw the back of his friend, drest in 
white, galloping off, on a white horse. 

He called after him, and followed 
him with his eyes, till the appearance 
vanished. Upon inquiry, he learned 
that Ficinus had died at Florence, at 
the very time when this vision was pre^ 
sented to Mercato, at a considerable 
distance. 

Many attempts have been made to 
discredit this story, but I think the evi- 
dence has never been shaken. I enter- 
tain no doubt, that Mercato had seen 
what he described ; in following the 
reveries of Plato, the idea of his friend, 
and of their compact, had been revived, 
and had produced a spectral impression, 
during the solitude and awful silence 
of the early hours of study, Baronius 
adds, that after jhis occurrence, Mer- 
cato neglected all profane studies, and 
addicted himself entirely to divinity. 



THEORY OF APPARITIONS. 103 

The vanishing of the imaginary appari- 
tion, in these cases, resembles Achilles's 
vision, in the Iliad. 



"Q,X,£To TtTpiyuTa. 

The impression of sound, the most 
remarkable circumstance in Mercato's 
vision, is by no means a solitary instance. 
Beaumont has given us, not only his 
own ghostly experience, but many ex- 
amples of this species of delusion. 

Cardan heiieved himself to have pos- 
sessed a faculty of divination,* by means 
of voices conveyed to him in different 
directions. He certainly mistook the 
symptom called Tinnitus Aurium, which 
accompanies the disease of literary men, 
for special warnings. 

* De vita propria, cap. 38. 
G 2 



104 THEORY OF APPARITIONS. 

In another instance, Cardan has shewed 
his propensity to ascribe his natural pe- 
culiarities to mystical causes. * When 

* I lived and lectured at Paris,' says he, 

* looking accidentally at my hands, I 
' saw, in the ring-finger of the right 
' hand, the figure of a bloody sword, 
' which alarmed me. In the evening 
' a messenger arrived, with letters from 

* my son-in-law, informing me of my 
' son's imprisonment, and desiring me 

* to go to Milan. That mark continued 
' to spread for fifty-three days, till it 
' reached the point of the finger, and 
' was as red and fiery as blood, to my 
1 great consternation. At midnight my 
' son was beheaded ; next day the mark 

* had nearly vanished, and in two days 
1 afterwards, it was entirely gone.'* There 
can be little doubt, that this appearance 
was occasioned by an inflamed lympha- 
tic. The voice of lamentation which 

* Cap* 37 , 



THEORY OF APPARITIONS. 105 

Cardan fancied he heard, about the time 
of his son's execution, was the result of 
the agitation of his mind, distracted with 
grief and terror. Beaumont's perception 
of sounds consisted chiefly in the tolling 
of bells, of dirTerent sizes, with occasional 
addresses from the spirits. It is singular, 
that he never suspected himself to labour 
under the disease of Cory bant ism, as it 
has been termed, though he describes it, 
as applied to others. 

The most remarkable instance of this 
kind, is the story of Quarre, as quoted 
by Morhoff ;* but the proof of its accu- 
racy is defective. Philebert de la Mare, 
m his life of Guion, takes occasion to 
introduce the story. 

During the French civil wars, Quar- 
reus, or Quarre, and other magistrates of 



* Polyhistor. Literar. Lib. i. Cap. 19.9. Tom i. 
p. 217. 

G 3 



106 THEORY OF APPARITIONS. 

the royal party, were obliged to quit 
Dijon, and remove to Saumur. In the 
month of August, 1594, about two 
o'clock in the morning, Quarre was 
awakened by a sudden shock, and heard 
some unknown words pronounced. He 
awaked his servant, who lay in the 
room, and ordered him to strike a light, 
that he might write down the words, 
which he continued muttering to him- 
self, lest he should forget them. Hav- 
ing written them, according to the 
sound, they ran thus : Oug aposondes 
ton endon distiguion. Neither himself 
. nor the servant could imagine what the 
language was, Quarre being | entirely 
ignorant of Greek. Early in the mor*?*- 
ing, he met with Guion, on his way 
to the court, and asked him to interpret 
the words. Guion knew them to be 
Greek, and that they ought to be writ- 
ten, 

And he added the translation : Non 
repulsuri, quod intus infortunium. 



THEORY OF APPARITIONS. 10? 

In attempting to unriddle the mean- 
ing of this mystical warning, Guion 
advised Quarre. to leave the house where 
he lodged in Saumur, the unwholesome 
air of which had occasioned him several 
attacks of the cho'iic. But eight days 
afterwards, the prediction was fulfilled. 
Quarre went, on public business, to 
Flavignae, and during his absence, the 
house fell down in the night, and 
crushed its inhabitants to death. Guion 
is said to have written a poem on the 
escape of his friend. This story rests, 
I believe, on the unsupported assertion 
of La Mare. If it be authentic, it 
seems to belong to the class of dreams. 

On the same principles we must ex- 
plain the apparitions recorded by VlN- 
centius, in the Speculum Historic, 
and extracted from him by WOLFIUS, 
in his Legtiones Memorabiles et 
RECONDITE, particularly the appearance 
of Pope Benedict to the Bishop of 
G 4 



108 THEORY OF APPARITIONS. 

Capua. " Idem lib. 25. Damianus re- 
" iert : Episcopus, inquit, quidam Capu- 
" anus vidit Benedictum majorem Papam 
" sibi olim familiarem, nigro, quasi 
" corporabiter, equo insidentem : (vide 
" quam conveniant scriptures Apoc. 6 
" cum histoiiis) at is territus ea visione 
" dicebat : Heus tu, nonne es Papa 
" Benedictus, quern jam defunetum no- 
" vimus ? Ego sum, inquit, infelix iste. 
" Quomodo, inquit, est tibi, pater \ 
" Graviter, inquit, torqueor, sed de Dei 
" misericordia non dispero, si mihi ad- 
" jutorium praebeatur, quia juvari pos- 
" sum : sed perge, quaeso, ad fratrem 
" meum Joannem, qui nunc sedem apos- 
" tolicam occupat, eique de mea parte 
" die, ut illam summam, quae potissime in 
" tali theca reposita est, in pauperes dis- 
" tribuat : sicque me redimendum esse 
" quandocumque, cum hoc divina mise- 
" ratio decreverit, cognoscat, nam csetera 
" quag pro me indigentibus tradita sunt, 
" nihil, mihi penitus profuerint eo, quod 



THEORY OF APPARITIONS. 109 

" de rapinis et injustitis acquisita sunt. 
" His auditis, Episcopus Romam impi- 
ff ger adiit, et Joanni Papse (cui et ipse 
*' apparuit ille Benedictus 9. precans 
" idem, et dicens, O utinam Odilo Clu- 
" niacensis pro merogaret!) fratris verba 
" narravit, et episcopatum mox deposuit, 
" et monachatum induit." 

Lection. Memorab. et zecondit. T. i. p> 530. 

My observations on this subject may 
be strengthened, by observing the great 
prevalence of spectral delusions, during 
the inter-regnum, in this country, after 
the civil war, in 1649. The melancholic 
tendency of the rigid puritans of that 
period ; their occupancy of old family 
seats, formerly the residence of hospita- 
lity and good cheer, which in their 
hands became desolate and gloomy ; and 
the dismal stories propagated by the 
discarded retainers to the ancient esta- 
blishments, ecclesiastical and civil, con- 
tributed altogether to produce a national 



110 THEORY OF APPARITIONS. 

horror unknown in other periods of our 
history. 

A curious example of this disposition 
is afforded, by the trial of Dr. Pordage, 
a Clergyman in Berkshire, which was 
published under the frightful title of 
' Damonium Meridiannm, or Satan at 
Noon-day ; * among many charges brought 
against him, Dr. Pordage was accused of 
demoniacal visions, and of frequent ap- 
paritions in his house; one of which 
consisted in the representation of a coach 
and six, on a brick-chimney, in which 
the carriage and horses continued in 
-constant motion for many weeks. It 
was said ' that a great dragon came into 
' his chamber, with a tail of eight yards 
' long, four great teeth, and did spit fire 
' at him. 

' That his own angel stood by him, 
' in his own shape and fashion, the same 
* shape, band and cuffs, and that he 



THEORY OF APPARITIONS. Ill 

1 supported him in his combat with the 
' dragon. 

' That Mrs. Pordage and Mrs. Fiavcl 

* had their angels standing by ihem also; 

• and that the spirits often came into the 
' chamber, and drew the curtains when 
' they were in bed/ 

The developement of the story, which 
is not necessary for my purpose, exhibits 
the combined effects of mysticism, sup- 
perstition and sensuality, which evidently 
produced a disordered state of the senso- 
rium, and gave rise to the visions, 
which were admitted by the parties. It 
is indeed, an awful truth, well known 
to physicians who see many lunatics, 
that religious melancholy is one of the 
most frequent causes of the Damono- 
mania. 

The subject of latent lunacy is an un- 
touched field, which would afford the 



112 THEORY OF APPARITIONS. 

richest harvest to a skilful and diligent 
observer. Cervantes has immortalized 
himself, by displaying the effect of one 
bad species of composition on the hero 
of his satire,* and Butler has delineated 
the evils of epidemic religious and poli- 
tical frenzy ; but it remains as a task for 
some delicate pencil, to trace the miseries 
introduced into private families, by a 
state of mind, which " sees more devils 
than vast hell can hold," and which yet 
affords no proof of derangement, suffi- 
cient to justify the seclusion of the un- 
happy invalid. 



* There are beauties, in the character of Don 
Quixote, which can only be understood by persons 
accustomed to lunatics. The dexterity and readiness 
with which he reconciles all events with the wayward 
system which he has adopted : his obstinacy in retain- 
ing and defending false impressions, and the lights of 
natural sagacity, and cultivated eloquence, which 
break frequently through the cloud that dims his 
understanding, are managed with consummate know- 
ledge of partial insanity, though it is sometimes hardly 
perceptible to the general reader. 



THEORY OF APPARITIONS, 113 

This is a species of distress, on which 
no novelist has ever touched, though it 
is unfortunately increasing in real life ; 
though it may be associated with worth, 
with genius, and with the most specious 
demonstrations (for a while) of general 
excellence. 

Addison has thrown out a few hints, 
on this subject, in one of the Spectators; 
it could not escape, so critical an ob- 
server of human infirmities ; and I have 
always supposed, that if the character 
of Sir Roger de Coverley had been left 
untouched by Steele, it would have 
exhibited some interesting traits of this 
nature. As it now appears, we see 
nothing more than occasional absence 
of mind ; and the peculiarities of an 
humourist, contracted by retirement, 
and by the obsequiousness of jhis depen- 
dants. 

It has often occurred to me, that 



114 THEORY OF APPARITIONS. 

Shakespeare's character of Hamlet can 
only be understood, on this principle. 
He feigns madness, for political pur- 
poses, while the poet means to represent 
his understanding as really, (and uncon- 
sciously to himself) unhinged by the 
cruel circumstances in which he is 
placed. The horror of the communica- 
tion made by his father's spectre ; the 
necessity of belying his attachment to an 
innocent and deserving object ; the cer- 
tainty of his mother's guilt ; and the 
supernatural impulse by which he is 
goaded to an act of assassination, abhor- 
rent to his nature, are causes sufficient 
to overwhelm and distract a mind pre- 
viously disposed to ' weakness and to 
melancholy,' and originally full of ten- 
derness and natural affection. By refer- 
ring to the book, it will be seen that 
his real insanity is only developed after 
the mock^piay. Then, in place of a 
systematic conduct, conducive to his 
purposes, he becomes irresolute, incon- 



THEORY OF APPARITIONS. 115 

sequent, and the plot appears to stand 
unaccountably still. Instead of striking 
at his object, he resigns himself to the 
current of events, and sinks at length, 
ignobly, under the stream. 



THEORY OF APPARITIONS. 117 



CHAP. V. 

Accessory causes of delusion, regarding 
spectral impressions — Apparition of Des- 
fontaines — Ghosts at Portnedoivn Bridge 
— Lucians story of a Split Ghost — 
Instance of a Ghost in two places at once. 

1.T will readily occur to the reader, that 
the disposition of the mind to halluci- 
nation must sometimes be powerfully 
aided, and encreased, by peculiar cir- 
cumstances of time and place. Chance 
may supply, or artifice may contrive 
concomitant sounds and objects, which 
must appal even the most incredulous 
observer. Even Bayle has doubted, 
whether the imagination alone can pro- 
duce spectres, without the assistance of 
II 



118 THEORY OF APPARITIONS. 

the arts of confederacy. This point, I 
trust, is now decided. 

An apparition which made some 
noise, about the beginning of the last 
century, that of DESFONTAINES, seems 
to have originated in a fit of deliquium, 
connected strongly with the recollection 
of a friend. 

It was published in the Journal de 
Trevoax, in 1726, and its outline is as 
follows. 

Mr. Bezuel, when a school-boy of 15, 
in 1695, contracted an intimacy with a 
younger boy, named Desfontaines. After 
talking together of the compacts which 
have been often made between friends, 
that in case of death, the spirit of the 
deceased should revisit the survivor, they 
agreed to form such a compact together, 
and they signed it, respectively, with 
their blood, in 1696. Soon after this 



THEORY OF APPARITIONS. 119 

transaction, they were separated, by 
Desfontaines' removal to Caen. 

In July, 1697, Bezuel, while amusing 
himself in hay-making, near a friend's 
house, was seized with a fainting fit, 
after which he had a bad night. * Not- 
withstanding this attack, he returned to 
the meadow next day, where he again 
underwent a deliquium. He again slept 
ill. On the succeeding clay, while he 
was observing the man laying up the 
hay, he had a still more severe attack. 
" I fell into a swoon : I lost my senses : 
"■ one of the footmen perceived it, and 
" called out for help. They recovered 
" me a little, but my mind was more 
" disordered than it had been before, 
" I was told that they asked me then 
" what ailed me, and that I answered ; 
" / have seen what I thought I should 
" never see. But I neither remember the 
" question, nor the answer. However, 
" it agrees with what I remember I saw 
H 2 



120 THEORY OF APPARITIONS. 

" then, a naked man in half length ; 
" but I knew him not. 

" They helped me to go down the 
" ladder ; I held the steps fast ; but be- 
" cause I saw Desfontaines my school- 
" fellow at the bottom of the ladder, I 
" had again a fainting fit : my head got 
" between two steps, and I again lost 
" my senses. They let me down, and 
•'. set me upon a large beam, which 
" served for a seat in the great Place de 
" Capucins. I sat upon it, and then I 
" no longer saw Mr. de Sortoville, nor 
" his servants, though they were present. 
" And perceiving Desfontaines near the 
" foot of the ladder, who made me a 
" sign to come to him, I went back 
" upon my seat, as it were to make 
" room for him ; and those who saw 
" me, and whom I did not see, though 
" my eyes were open, observed that 
" motion. 



THEORY OF APPARITIONS. 121 

" Because he did not come, I got up 
" to go to him : he came up to me, took 
" hold of my left arm with his right 
" hand, and carried me thirty paces 
" farther into a by-lane, holding me 
" fast. 

" The servants believing that I was 
" well again, went to their business, 
" except a little foot-boy, who told Mr. 
" de Sortoville, that I was talking to 
" myself. Mr. de Sortoville thought I 
" was drunk. He came near me, and 
" heard me ask some questions, and 
" return some answers, as he told me 
" since. 

" I talked with Desfoniaines nearly 
" three quarters of an hour. I promised 
" you, said he, that if I died before you, 
" I would come and tell you so. I am 
" dead : I was drowned in the river of 
" Caen, yesterday, about this hour. I 
" was walking with such and such per* 
H 3 



122 THEORY OF APPARITIONS. 

" sons. It was very hot weather ; the 
" fancy took us to go into the water ; 
" I grew faint, and sunk to the bottom 
a of the river. The Abbe Meniljean, 
" my school-fellow, dived to take me 
" up. I took hold of his foot; but 
" whether he was afraid, or had a mind 
" to rise to the top of the water, he 
" struck out his leg so violently, that he 
" gave me a blow on the breast, and 
" threw me again to the bottom of the 
" river, which is there very deep. 

**************** 
" He always appeared to me taller than 
" I had seen him, and even taller than 
" he was when he died. I always saw 
" him in half-length, and naked, bare- 
" headed, with his fine light hair, and 
" a white paper upon his forehead 
" twisted in his hair, on which there 
" was a writing, but I could only read 
" hi &c.."* 

* Memoirs de Trevoux, T. viii.- — 1726. 



THEORY OF APPARITIONS. 123 

These spectral impressions were re- 
peated more than once, with conversa- 
tions. The accidental death of the young 
man was ascertained very quickly. 

This story was published by the cele- 
brated Abbe de St. Pierre, who con- 
cluded, very justly, that the whole ap- 
pearances might be explained from na- 
tural causes, though he failed in his 
mode of deduction. 

The first impression was evidently oc- 
casioned by Bezuel's fainting. I know, 
from my own experience, as well as 
that of others, that the approach of 
syncope is sometimes attended with a 
spectral appearance, which I believe is 
always a recollected image. But the 
subsequent attacks, in this case, appear 
to have been delirious ; there can be 
little doubt that Bezuel was deceived in 
the length of his supposed dialogue with 
the spectre. We know well, how fal* 
H 4 



124 THEORY OF APPARITIONS. 

lacious, in this respect, the train of 
thought proves, in dreams, and in deli- 
rium. 

In this case also, we perceive, what 
I have frequently had occasion to notice, 
the obstinacy with which a morbid im- 
pression is preserved, and defended, long- 
after the restoration of health. I could 
give most singular, and impressive ex- 
amples of this nature, if professional 
delicacy permitted. In one instance, 
which I heard from a friend on whose 
veracity I could depend, a gentleman 
fancied during the delirium of a fever, 
that a considerable estate had been be- 
queathed to him; the impression con- 
tinued long after his recovery, and he 
was not undeceived without much trou- 
ble and difficulty. 

There is a relation, published by 
authority, of some apparitions, which 
were seen at Portnedown bridge, after the 



THEORY OF APPARITIONS. 125 

Irish massacre, which deserves conside- 
ration, as it must be explained on prin- 
ciples somewhat different. 

I shall give copies of the evidence, 
produced by Sir John Temple, and shall 
then endeavour to explain the alarming 
appearances and sounds, on natural prin- 
ciples. 

I. James Shaw of Market-hill in the 
county of Armagh, inn-keeper, deposeth, 
that many of the Irish rebels, in the 
time of this deponent's restraint, and 
staying among them, told him very 
often, and it was a common report, that 
all those who lived about the bridge of 
Portnedown, were so affrighted with the 
cries and noise made there of some spirits 
or visions for revenge, as that they durst 
not stay, but fled away thence, so as 
they protested, affrighted to Market-hill, 
saying, they durst not stay nor return 
thither, for fear of those cries and spi- 



126 THEORY OF APPARITIONS. 

rits, but took grounds and made creats, 
(Creaghs) in or near the parish of Mul- 
labrac. Jurat, Aug. 14, 1642. 

IT. Joan, the relict of Gabriel Con- 
stable, late of Drumard, in the county 
of Armagh, gent, deposeth and saith, 
that she often heard the rebels, Owen 
O'Farren, Patrick O'Conellan, and clivers 
others of the rebels at Drumard, earnestly 
say, protest and tell one another, that 
the blood of some of those that were 
knocked on the head, and afterwards 
drowned at Portnedown bridge, still re- 
mained on the bridge, and would not 
be washed away; and that often there 
appeared visions or apparitions, some- 
times of men, sometimes of women, 
breast-high above the water, at or near 
Portnedown, which did most extremely 
and fearfully screech and cry out for 
vengeance against the Irish that had 
murdered their bodies there : and that 
their cries and screeches did so terrify 



THEORY OF APPARITIONS. 127 

the Irish thereabouts, that none durst 
stay nor live longer there, but fled and 
removed further into the country, and 
this was common report amongst the 
rebels there, and that it passed for a truth 
amongst them, for any thing she could 
ever observe to the contrary. Jurat. 
Jan. 1, 1643. 

III. Katherine, the relict of William 
Coke, late of the county of Armagh, 
carpenter, sworn and examined, saith, 
that about the 20th of December, 1641, 
a great number of rebels in that county, 
did most barbarously drown at that time 
one hundred and eighty protestants, men, 
women, and children in the river at the 
bridge of Portnedown ; and that about 
nine days afterwards, she saw a vision or 
spirit in the shape of a man, as she 
apprehended, that appeared in that river, 
in the place of the drowning, bolt up- 
right heart high, with hands lifted up, 
and stood in that place there, until the 



128 THEORY OF APPARITIONS. 

latter end of Lent next following; about 
which time some of the English army 
marching in those parts, whereof her 
husband was one (as he and they confi- 
dently affirmed to this deponent) saw 
that spirit or vision standing upright, and 
in the posture aforementioned ; hut after 
that time the said spirit or vision, va- 
nished and appeared no more, that she 
knoweth. And she heard, but saw not, 
that there were other visions and appa- 
ritions, and much screeching, and strange 
noises heard in that river at times after- 
wards. Jurat. February 24, 1643. 

IV. Elizabeth, the wife of Captain 
Rice Price of Armagh, deposeth and 
saith, that she and other women whose 
husbands were murderers, hearing of 
divers apparitions, and visions that were 
seen near Portnedown Bridge, since the 
drowning of her children and the rest 
of the protestants there, went unto the 
bridge aforesaid about twilight in the 



THEORY OF APPARITIONS. 129 

evening ; then and there upon a sud- 
den, there appeared unto them a vision 
or spirit, assuming the shape of a wo- 
man, waist-high upright in the water, 
naked with elevated and closed hands, 
her hair hanging down, very white, her 
eyes seemed to twinkle, and her skin as 
white as snow ; which spirit seemed to 
stand straight up in the water, and often 
repeated the word, Revenge, Revenge, 
Revenge ; whereat this deponent and the 
rest being put into a strong amazement 
and affright walked from the place. 
Jurat. January 29, 1642. 

V. Arthur Arlun, of Clowarghter in 
the county of Cavan, Esquire, deposeth 
that he was credibly informed by some 
that were present there, that there were 
thirty women and young children and 
seven men flung into the river of Beltur- 
bet, and when some of them offered to 
swim for their lives, they were by the 
rebels, followed in carts, and knocked 



130 THEORY OF APPARITIONS. 

upon the head with poles ; the same day 
they hanged two women at Turbet ; 
and this deponent doth verily believe, 
that Rulmore O'Rely the then sheriff, 
had a hand in commanding the murder 
of those said persons, for that he saw 
him write two notes which he sent to 
Turbet by Brian O'Rely, upon whose 
coming there murders were committed : 
and those persons who were present also 
affirmed, that the bodies of those thirty 
persons drowned did not appear upon 
the water till about six weeks after past ; 
as the said Rely came to the town, all 
the bodies came floating up to the very 
bridge; and those persons were all for- 
merly stayed in the town by his protec- 
tion, when the rest of their neighbours 
in the town went away.* 

That the sounds complained of by 
these witnesses ' were mere delusions, 

* Hist, of the Irish Rebellion, by Sir John 
temple, Kt.— p. 123. 



THEORY OF APPARITIONS. 131 

there can be no doubt. The actors in 
such bloody scenes are liable to tre- 
mendous recollections. The solitary 
hours of Charles IX. of France were 
rendered horrible by the repetition of 
the shrieks and cries which had assailed 
his ears during the massacre of St. Bar- 
tholomew.* When the mind is loaded 
with a sense of insupportable guilt, par- 
tial insanity is at hand ; and warning, or 
reproaching voices distract the feelings 
of the sufferer. 

The appearance of bodies, sitting up- 
right in the water, was no deception, 
though it contributed by its horror, to 
the illusions of the ear. This terrific 
visitation has occasioned much alarm, 
under similar circumstances, even in 
modern times. We are told, that after 
the executions which took place, in the 
bay of Naples, by order of that court, 

* Mem. de Sullv, Liv. i. 



132 THEORY OF APPARITIONS. 

in 1799, the body of Carraccioli * was 
seen floating, in an erect position, seve- 
ral days after his death, near the vessel 
on board of which he had suffered. In 
a certain stage of putrefaction, the 
bodies of persons which have been im- 
mersed in water, rise to the surface, 
and in deep water, are supported in an 
erect posture, to the terror of unin- 
structed spectators. Menacing looks and 
gestures, and even words, are supplied 
by the affrighted imagination, with infi- 
nite facility, and referred to the horrible 
apparition. I insert a striking instance 
from Dr. Clarke. " One day, leaning 
" out of the cabin window, by the side 
" of an officer who was employed in 
" fishing, the corpse of a man, newly 
•' sewed in a hammock, started half out 
" of the water, and continued its course, 
" with the current, towards the shore— 
" Nothing could be more horrible : its 

* Clarke's Life of Nelson, vol. II. 



THEORY OF APPARITIONS. 133 

" head and shoulders were visible, turn- 
" ing first to one side, then to the other, 
" with a solemn and awful movement, 
" as if impressed with some dreadful 
" secret of the deep, which, from its 
" watery grave it came upwards to reveal. 
" Such sights became afterwards fre- 
" quent, hardly a day passing without 
" ushering the dead to the contempla- 
" tion of the living, until at length they 
" passed without observation."* 

Lucian has treated this malady of 
the mind with his usual severe ridicule, 
in one of his most entertaining dialogues, 
the Plulopseudes. The stories of the 
statues, which descended at night from 
their pedestals, and walked about the 
court, are well told. But that of the 
inchanted stick is the best. 

Eucrates says, that he became ac- 

* Second Part of Clarke's " Travels in various 
parts of Europe, Asia, and Africa." Page 268. 
I 



134 THEORY OF APPARITIONS. 

quainted, in Egypt, with Pancrates, who 
had resided twenty years in the subter- 
raneous recesses, where he had learned 
magic from Isis herself. " At length, 
" he persuaded me to leave all my 
" servants at Memphis, and to follow 
" him alone, telling me that we should 
" not be at a loss for servants. When 
" we came into any inn, he took a 
" wooden pin, latch or bolt, and wrap- 
" ping »t in some clothes, when he had 
" repeated a verse over it, he made it 
*■ walk, and appear a man to every one. 
" This creature went about, prepared 
" supper, laid the cloth, and waited on 
" us very dextrously. Then, when we 
'*. had no further occasion for it, by 
" repeating another verse, he turned it 
'• into a pin, latch or bolt again. He 
" refused to impart the secret of this 
" incantation to me, though very oblig- 
" ing in every thing else. But having 
" hid myself, one day, in a dark corner, 
" I caught the first verse, which con- 



THEORY OF APPARITIONS. 135 

" sisted of three syllables. After he had 
" given his orders to the pin, he went 
" into the market-place. Next day, in 
" his absence, I took the pin, drest it 
*{ up, and repeating those syllables, or- 
" dered it to fetch some water. When 
" it had brought a full jar, I cried, stop, 
" draw no more water, but be a pin 
V again. But instead of obeying me, 
" it went on bringing water, till it had 
" almost filled the house. I, not able to 
f* endure this obstinacy, and fearing the 
" return of Pancrates, lest he should be 
" displeased,, seized a hatchet, and split 
" the pin into two pieces. But each 
" part, taking up a jar, ran to draw 
" more water, so that I had now two 
" servants in place of one. In the mean 
" time, Pancrates returned, and under- 
" standing the matter, changed them 
" into wood again, as they were before 
" the incantation." We may fairly ap- 
ply the Italian saying to this story ; 
si non e vero, e ben trovato. 
I 2 



136 THEORY OF APPARITIONS. 

But there is ghostly authority for the 
division of a goblin, equal to most of 
Glanville's histories, though I cannot 
now recover, the names of the parties. 
The relation came to me, however, 
from a friend of one of the Seers. 

Two elderly ladies, resided, each in 
her ancient castle, adjoining to the other, 
near the borders of Scotland. While 
they were beguiling a tedious winter 
evening, with accounts of their domestic 
policy, the conversation insensibly turned 
on the subject of their household ghosts: 
for at that time, every venerable old 
mansion had an established resident of 
that nature, who was as well known as 
the family-crest. 

' Every evening, said one of the 
' Sybils, I perceive the bust of a man, 
' in one of the rooms, which is distinctly 
' visible, down to the girdle. 



THEORY OF APPARITIONS. 137 

* And we,' cried the other dame, 
i have the rest of his person in our 
i castle, which perambulates the house 
' every night ; till this moment, I could 
f not imagine how the head and shoulders 
' of the figure were disposed of.' 

I have thus presented to the reader, 
those facts which have afforded, to my 
own mind, a satisfactory explanation of 
such relations of spectral appearances, as 
cannot be refused credit, without re- 
moving all the limits and supports of 
human testimony. To disqualify the 
senses, or the veracity of those who 
witness unusual appearances, is the ut- 
most tyranny of prejudice. Yet, who, 
till within the last fifteen years, would 
have dared to assert that stones fell from 
the clouds ? Livy had regularly re- 
corded such events, and was ridiculed 
for supplying those most curious facts, 
which must otherwise have been lost to 
natural history, 



138 THEORY OF APPARITIONS. 

In like manner, I conceive that the 
unaffected accounts of spectral visions 
should engage the attention of the phi- 
losopher, as well as of the physician. 
Instead of regarding these stories with 
the horror of the vulgar, or the disdain 
of the sceptic, we should examine them 
accurately, and should ascertain their 
exact relation to the state of the brain, 
and of the external senses. 

The terror of nocturnal illusions would 
thus be dissipated, to the infinite relief 
of many wretched creatures; and the 
appearance of a ghost would be regarded 
in its true light, as a symptom of bodily 
distemper, and of little more conse- 
quence than the head-ach and shivering 
attending a common catarrh. 

There is reason to believe, that many 
persons suffer silently, from these imagi- 
nary visitations, who are deterred from 
divulging their distresses, by the ridicule 







THEORY OF APPARITIONS. 139 

with which complaints of this nature are 
commonly treated. When the proper 
distinction is established, admitting ihe 
reality of the impression, but explaining 
its production in the mind alone, ail 
difficulties of this kind may be removed, 
and the apprehensions of the visionary 
may be readily quieted. 

Lastly, by the key which I have 
furnished, the reader of history is re- 
leased from the embarrassment of reject- 
ing evidence, in some of the plainest 
narratives, or of experiencing uneasy 
doubts, when the solution might be ren- 
dered perfectly simple. 



FINIS. 



PRINTED BY J. AND J. HADDOCK, 
WARRINGTON. 



Deacidified using the Bookkeeper process 
Neutralizing agent: Magnesium Oxide 
Treatment Date: Nov. 2004 

PreservationTechnologies 

A WORLD LEADER IN PAPER PRESERVATION 

1 1 1 Thomson Park Drive 
Cranberry Township, PA 16066 
(724) 779-21 1 1 



LIBRARY 




